Barack Obama's transition team is expected today to release details of its communication with disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, in the hopes of distancing the president-elect from the man accused of trying to sell Obama's former Senate seat.
The campaign will release a list of all contacts between transition staff and Blagojevich's team. The report is an effort to quell speculation among Obama's political opponents that the president-elect's team had untoward discussions with Blagojevich regarding the Senate appointment, and end complaints the team has not been wholly forthcoming.
The report's release comes as Obama is on his annual holiday in
Hawaii and will likely be unavailable to comment.
Blagojevich was arrested earlier this month on a series corruption charges, including an allegation that he sought campaign contributions and a high paying job in exchange for an appointment to the US Senate seat Obama vacated when he was elected president.
Blagojevich, a former US congressman, and Obama were never close during the president-elect's 12 years in Illinois politics. But the home state scandal and the involvement of the president-elect's former Senate seat have detracted from Obama's effort carefully to stage-manage the transition.
The report was ready as early as last week but Obama held off making it public at the request of Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor handling the Blagojevich case.
The Obama team's clumsy handling of the report and Obama's refusal to take questions on the matter have led to speculation about its contents. The team has said only that Obama himself had no contact with Blagojevich or his staff and that transition aides had no "inappropriate" discussions with them. Several US news outlets have reported that Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a Chicagoan, discussed the Senate appointment with Blagojevich's staff.
It is unclear when and how the Senate seat will be filled.
Blagojevich has refused to resign and last week declared he will fight an impeachment effort under way in the Illinois state legislature. But leaders of the US Senate have said they will not seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.
The Blagojevich matter was only the first issue this month that signalled the end of Obama's honeymoon among his supporters and the media.
In addition, many of Obama's liberal backers, particularly gay activists, are furious about his selection of Rick Warren, an evangelical preacher who campaigned heavily against allowing same-sex marriage in California, to give an invocation at the inauguration next month.