Obama: Staff had no inappropriate contact with Blago
INTERNAL REVIEW | But president-elect doesn't release details of probe at Fitzgerald's request
President-elect Barack Obama said Monday an internal review his office has completed clears his staff of any misconduct in its communications with Gov. Blagojevich as the governor allegedly sought favors in exchange for an appointment to Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat.
But Obama said he could not release that review because federal authorities aren't done with their investigation. Authorities have sought to keep control over what portions of Obama's internal investigation are made public as they seek to interview people involved in the case.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
Sources say that investigators want to question players in the case in upcoming days without allowing information leaked from the case to taint what they tell the feds.
"We were prepared to release the findings of the review that had been done, which was quite thorough and comprehensive," Obama told a news conference in Chicago. "The U.S. attorney's office asked us to hold off releasing those for a week, and so I would ask for your patience because I do not want to interfere with an ongoing investigation."
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald confirmed he asked for the delay while his office conducts more interviews.
"After the president-elect announced an internal transition team investigation, the United States attorney's office requested a brief delay of the release of a report of that investigation to conduct certain interviews," Fitzgerald said, not elaborating.
Blagojevich was arrested and charged last week with trying to auction off Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.
The governor was quoted in a criminal complaint instructing aides to tell an Obama "adviser" -- reportedly Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel -- that Blagojevich wanted a Cabinet appointment or some other lucrative job in exchange for appointing Obama's friend Valerie Jarrett to the seat.
Emanuel stood off to the side next to Obama senior adviser David Axelrod as the question was asked Monday at the Drake hotel.
Emanuel smiled, looked at the ground and looked back up at Obama as the president-elect answered the question, and Emanuel left the news conference ignoring reporters' questions.
Emanuel has publicly taken no questions from reporters since his name came up in connection with the scandal last week. He has not been accused of any wrong-doing. According to the complaint, Obama's office refused to make deals on the seat with Blagojevich.
Obama repeated that point Monday. "I had no contact with the governor's office and I had no contact with anybody in the governor's office," Obama said at a news conference announcing his choices to head the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and other energy and environmental posts.
"There was nothing that my office did that was in any way inappropriate or related to the charges that have been brought," he added.
Obama said he had read the internal report and was satisfied with his staff's actions.
"There is nothing in the review that was presented to me that in any way contradicted my earlier statements that this . . . set of circumstances that we have seen . . . had [anything] to do with my office. Those facts will be forthcoming to all of you in due course."
Introducing his team -- led by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as the new Energy secretary -- Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden took jabs at the Bush Administration. "My administration will value science. We will make decisions based on the facts," Obama said.
"The office of the vice president will no longer be an obstacle to environmental protection, but it will be, as it was under [Vice-President Al] Gore, a force for leaping ahead," Biden said.