| GEO World | | Illinois governor arrested for trying to sell Obama's senate seat | Updated at: 2156 PST, Tuesday, December 09, 2008
 CHICAGO: The governor of Illinois was arrested Tuesday for conspiring to sell an appointment to president-elect Barack Obama's recently open US senate seat, prosecutors said.
Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were also accused to trying to "induce purge of newspaper editorial writers," critical of him, the US attorney's office said in a statement.
"The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering," US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement.
"They allege that Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism."
Blagojevich, 51, and Harris, 46, were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. |  |
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