Obama camp: No ‘inappropriate’ talks with Blagojevich

Barack Obama’s transition team said Monday that the
president-elect’s staff did not have “inappropriate discussions” with Illinois
Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) about who should replace Obama in the Senate.

{mosads}“At the direction of the president-elect, a review of
transition staff contacts with Gov. Blagojevich and his office has been
conducted and completed and is ready for release,” Obama communications
director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement. “That review affirmed the public
statements of the president-elect that he had no contact with the governor or
his staff, and that the president-elect’s staff was not involved in
inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of
his successor as U.S. senator.”

The transition team reacted in response to questions
about whether Obama surrogates were in any way involved in Blagojevich’s
alleged scheme to essentially auction off the seat to the highest bidder. It
has been reported that Obama’s chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), had
discussed with Blagojevich a list of candidates who would be acceptable.
However, Emanuel is not a target in the probe and it has not been asserted that
the contact he had with the governor was illegal.

Pfeiffer also said that Greg Craig, Obama’s transition
counsel and his choice to be White House counsel, “has kept the U.S. attorney’s
office informed of this fact-gathering process in order to ensure our full
cooperation with the investigation.”

He added that the U.S. attorney’s office requested that
the release of the transition review be “deferred until the week of Dec. 22, in
order not to impede their investigation of the governor.”