Rod Blagojevich headed for retrial in early 2011

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Townhall:

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is set to go back on trial in January, but he will stand alone as a defendant this time after prosecutors dismissed all corruption charges against his brother on Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel said Rod Blagojevich's retrial will start the week of Jan. 4, but he did not set a specific date. Jurors deadlocked last week on all but one of 23 charges against the former governor and four charges against his brother.

Robert Blagojevich said he was surprised by the dismissal, but had an inkling that prosecutors were wavering in their case against him when they called his attorney "proposing a strategy" on Wednesday.

He said he turned prosecutors down, and though he would not say what prosecutors were offering, "We were encouraged by it, of course. We speculated briefly on what it might mean (but) we didn't think it would mean a dismissal today."

The Nashville, Tenn., businessman also said he is convinced that prosecutors never believed he was guilty of any crime, but used him as "leverage."