Obama Team Completes Review Of Contacts With Gov.

By: Kevin Hechtkopf
Topics: In The News

Ahead of President-elect Barack Obama's 5 p.m. ET news conference, where he will likely be asked about the still burgeoning scandal involving Illinois Gov. Rod. Blogojevich, the transition team released a statement with the results of their internal investigation into the matter. The key highlight is that the review found Mr. Obama's staff had no "inappropriate discussions" with Blogojevich or his staff. However, a full report won't be released until next week at the request of the U.S. Attorney's office.

Below is the full statement from Obama Transition Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer:

"At the direction of the president-elect, a review of Transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been conducted and completed and is ready for release. 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.

"Also at the president-elect's direction, Gregory Graig, counsel to the Transition, has kept the U.S. Attorney's office informed of this fact-gathering process in order to ensure our full cooperation with the investigation.

"In the course of those discussions, the U.S. Attorney's office requested the public release of the Transition review be deferred until the week of December 22, in order not to impede their investigation of the governor. The Transition has agreed to this revised timetable for release," said Obama Transition Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer."