WASHINGTON— An internal review shows aides to President-elect Barack Obama had no "inappropriate discussions" with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich or his staff concerning the search for a Senate replacement from Illinois, a spokesman for the presidential transition office said Monday.
But spokesman Dan Pfeiffer also said the office won't release details of its review until the week of Dec. 22 at the request of prosecutors "in order not to impede their investigation of the governor."
That's Christmas week, when few people will be paying attention and when Obama plans to be celebrating the holiday in Hawaii — not in Chicago, which has been the focal point of the federal investigation.
The U.S. attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The brief statement did not address several issues raised over the past week since the criminal complaint against the governor was filed.
It did not say whether Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, was heard on a wiretap providing the governor's top aide with a list of names that the president-elect favored. Nor did it say who, if anyone, on Obama transition's team had made contact with the governor or his aides concerning a replacement for Obama.
In the statement, Pfeiffer said that incoming White House counsel Gregory Craig has kept federal prosecutors informed of the internal review "in order to ensure our full cooperation with the investigation" into allegations against the governor.
Pfeiffer said the 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."
Obama resigned his Senate seat last month to prepare for taking the oath of office as president. Blagojevich, who has the power to appoint a replacement, was arrested last Tuesday on charges he schemed to sell the seat in exchange for money or political favors for himself or his wife.
The president-elect quickly told reporters that he never personally spoke to Blagojevich about who would fill the seat he resigned to take over the presidency next month. A top Obama aide who had said in November that Obama had spoken to the governor quickly issued a statement saying he had been mistaken in the TV interview.
On Thursday, Obama, who has promised transparency, said he had ordered an internal review of whether his staff had any involvement in the scandal and promised to divulge contacts his staff has had with Blagojevich's office in a matter of days.
"What I want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor's office," Obama said at the time. "And we'll have those in the next few days, and we'll present them. But what I'm absolutely certain about is that our office had no involvement in any deal-making around my Senate seat. That I'm absolutely certain of."
But since then, Obama's staff has declined to respond to even basic questions, like how long the review would take, who was leading it and what issues were explored.
Two people who have been briefed on the investigation had told The Associated Press that Emanuel is not a target of the probe. They spoke on a condition of anonymity because the criminal investigation is ongoing. One is a person close to Emanuel, who said he has been told by investigators that he's not a subject of their probe.
There are no suggestions that Obama or his aides were involved in the alleged sale of his seat. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has said prosecutors were making no allegations that Obama was aware of any scheming. And Blagojevich himself, in taped conversations cited by prosecutors, suggested that Obama wouldn't be helpful to him and called him a vulgar term. Even if the governor was to appoint a candidate favored by the Obama team, Blagojevich said, " they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation." AP
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