Obama report on Blagojevich reveals Emanuel had only one call to governor.
President-elect Barack Obama plans to reveal on Tuesday his staff's conversations with the Illinois governor accused of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, transition officials said Monday. "We have a report," said Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. "It's been ready for release for a week. We've held off at the request of the U.S. Attorney's office and that continues to be the case, though we expect to be able to release the report shortly."
Obama had promised to release this week the review he ordered of contacts between his aides and Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office about appointing Obama's Senate successor. The president-elect is on vacation in Hawaii, but his office will go ahead with the release on Tuesday, transition officials said.
Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. Obama has said his internal review will show that his staff had no "inappropriate" discussions with the governor or his staff about the seat.
Incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel contacted Blagojevich's office about the appointment, according to a source close to the governor who requested anonymity because the person is not authorized to speak on the matter. Blagojevich believed Emanuel was advocating Obama friend Valerie Jarrett for the Senate seat so he would not have to compete with her for Obama's attention in the White House, the source said.
It was not known whether Emanuel, a Chicago-area congressman, spoke to Blagojevich, his chief of staff, or both, the source said.
It's also not known if any of those discussions are included in tapes investigators began making of Blagojevich's conversations in October. A federal complaint charging the governor with seeking cash and favors for Obama's vacant Senate seat doesn't cite conversations with Emanuel or others on the transition staff.
An official familiar with Obama's internal review said the president-elect's team wrote their report without having access to transcripts of the FBI's taped conversations. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the review publicly.
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