Blagojevich Convicted on Only One of 24 Counts

Federal prosecutors late Tuesday afternoon said they would likely retry former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich after a jury was able to reach a unanimous verdict on only one of 24 counts brought against him.

Prosecutors said they would likely retry Blagojevich on some if not all of the remaining counts, according to news reports.

Judge James Zagel said he intends to declare a mistrial on the undecided counts.

The jury was deadlocked on the remaining 23 counts against the impeached governor and all five counts facing his elder brother, Robert Blagojevich, who served as his campaign finance chairman in 2008.

After an eight-week trial and 14 days of deliberation, the jury late Tuesday returned a verdict of guilty on a count of making a false statement or representation to the FBI.

It was considered the least serious of all 24 counts, and was the only charge that did not feature the secret tape recordings that helped sensationalize the trial.

The charge carries a maximum five-year sentence.

Blagojevich faced 24 criminal counts, including racketeering, attempted extortion, bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to commit extortion.

The former Democratic governor was charged with attempting to use the powers of his office to personally profit and enrich his campaign coffers.

Robert Blagojevich faced five counts of wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and bribery conspiracy.

The trial began June 3.

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