Pat Dollard

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Prosecutors on Tuesday released secretly taped conversations which reveal how the governor accused of trying to sell President Barack Obama’s senate seat pressured a racetrack owner for campaign contributions.

The FBI tapes were played in the Illinois state senate, which is currently holding an impeachment trial to determine whether Rod Blagojevich should be removed from office in the wake of his December 9 arrest.

The tapes were not the most damning pieces of evidence described up in a 76-page criminal complaint.

Prosecutors withheld the bulk of the evidence for a criminal trial, including tapes in which Blagojevich allegedly said of his right to appoint Obama’s replacement “I’ve got this thing and it’s f(expletive) golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for f(expletive) nothing.”

Obama and his team have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The four brief tapes show how Blagojevich and his associates pressured a racetrack owner to donate money to the Democratic governor’s reelection campaign before new ethics rules kicked in.

Prosecutors allege that Blagjoevich was trying to swap the contribution for his help in passing a bill that would direct a percentage of casino revenue to the horse racing industry.

The tapes are not explicit, but Blagojevich can twice be heard asking his brother to confirm that the contribution will be made “before the end of the year.”

In another tape, he strategizes about the best way to pressure the racetrack owner into coming up with the money he had promised to donate.

“I’ll call him and say yeah, we’ll, and we want to do an event down … downstate,” Blagojevich told his former chief of staff, Lon Monk.

“We wanna do it and hope, hope to do this so we can get together and start picking some dates to do a bill signing? Right?”

Blagojevich, who insists he has done nothing wrong and that the more damning transcripts were taken out contexts, is boycotting the senate trial.

He says the rules are unfair and do not offer him the opportunity to defend himself. (AFP)