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Illinois governor guilty of abuse

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been ousted from office after being convicted of abusing his powers.

Senators voted 59-0 against him after an impeachment trial, despite his claim that he had "done nothing wrong" and that there was no evidence of a crime.

He was charged with trying to sell the seat vacated by Barack Obama when he was elected president.

In a second vote, Mr Blagojevich was banned from holding public office in Illinois for life.

He had been arrested in December and faces a criminal trial over bribes allegedly taken during his two terms.

Mr Blagojevich is now replaced as governor by Patrick Quinn, a fellow Democrat and the state's lieutenant governor.

No other Illinois governor has been impeached, let alone convicted in a Senate trial.

In a last-minute bid to save his position, Mr Blagojevich addressed his trial on Thursday, having earlier said he would not take any part.

He told senators: "There is no evidence that shows there was any wrongdoing by me as governor."

He expressed annoyance that he was not able to bring his own witnesses.

He said President Barack Obama's chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel was one witness he would have liked to question, but rules prevented him from doing so.

He appealed to senators, at the end of the four-day trial, to consider his position, saying: "Think if you were innocent and rushed out of office.

"A crime has not been proven. How can you throw a governor out of office with incomplete evidence?"

Since Mr Blagojevich was arrested last month, he has persistently denied the charges against him and has refused to resign.

There is no trial date set in the criminal case.

"If I thought I had done something wrong I would have resigned in December," he told senators.

"I didn't resign then and I'm not resigning now because I have done nothing wrong."

He says he is the victim of a political vendetta.

Impeachment prosecutor David Ellis, in his rebuttal, emphasised that Mr Blagojevich had refused to appear under oath to answer questions, opting instead to make a closing speech.

In his closing remarks, Mr Ellis said: "The evidence showed that throughout his tenure as governor, the governor has abused the power of his office and put his own interest above the interest of the people."

The impeachment followed an investigation by a 21-member committee of Illinois legislators, which looked at testimony from FBI agents who wiretapped phone calls to and from the governor's office about who should fill President Obama's seat.

It is alleged the conversations show that Mr Blagojevich was trying to use the seat to get himself or his wife a job.