Prosecutors agreed to give the impeachment panel in the corruption case of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich the tape-recordings in which he allegedly is heard discussing the selling of the senate seat left vacant by President Elect Barack Obama as well as other illegal issues.

Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said he will ask the permission of a judge to provide the recordings of four conversations of Mr. Blagojevich. Other topics of the conversations included exchanging state funding and contracts for campaign contributions.

Mr. Fitzgerald asked the impeachment panel not to call Rahm Emanuel (the president’s future chief of staff) and two other aides of Obama in court for testimony. The request was accepted.
 
On the other hand, Mr. Blagojevich’s attorney, Ed Genson, said Monday that to impeach his client would be a wrong move because the vague array of charges and evidence brought against the Illinois Governor aren’t enough to justify an impeachment.

Mr. Genson argued that the snippets of tape-recorded conversations that are quoted in the criminal complaint are taken out of a wider context which nobody knows.

"We are fighting shadows, and that's not right," Genson said. He took on the lawmakers for not being impartial because it was clear as daylight that they had little sympathy for Blagojevich or for his attorney’s arguments.

"Isn't anyone here going to stand up for the governor, or is it going to be one (critic) after the other?" Mr. Genson asked. "This is the impartial panel?"

Gov. Blagojevich was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on December 9 on several corruption charges, including scheming to benefit from naming President-elect Barack Obama's replacement in the U.S. Senate. Mr. Blagojevich denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of an orchestrated political attack. The governor said the impeachment effort is led by "a political lynch mob."