Marathon Pundit: Blago lawyers: Money not the reason they won't represent guv at impeachment trial

I have to get in one more Rod Blagojevich post before Barack Obama is inagurated.

There has been speculation that Blago's legal team, led by Ed Genson Sam Adam, and Sam Adam Jr. backed out of representing Blago in his impeachment trial because they haven't been paid. All three men vehemently deny this.

However, the Chicago Sun-Times has this to say....

Had they attended the proceedings, there's a chance at least some of them wouldn't have been paid.

With the governor strapped for cash, his lawyers were looking to his campaign fund for their fees. But prosecutors wouldn't sign off on lawyers tapping into the Friends of Blagojevich war chest to cover legal expenses for the impeachment. They have agreed that some attorney fees can come out of the fund for the criminal case, though, sources said.

The Blagojevich campaign fund's latest report showed it had more than $3.6 million in it.

While there's no formal government order that bans defense lawyers from tapping the fund, prosecutors have filed a notice that they intended to freeze it. Since receiving that notice -- which came about a week after the governor's Dec. 9 arrest on corruption charges, including an allegation he tried to sell an appointment to succeed Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate -- Blagojevich's lawyers have been careful to take money from the fund only with government permission, fearing the money might be seized later, sources said.