ROD BLAGOJEVICH, FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: OK? OK. Let me begin by first and foremost thanking my legal team and you know who they are Sam Adam Senior, Sam Adam Junior, my friend Sheldon Sharoski. Let me go down the list, Lauren and Elliot Reedman and Aaron Goldstein and Michael Gillespie who has a torn hamstring, Mark Martin who the guy was very good with the legal books. I want to thank them. I want to thank Jerry Wallace for being her, Keenan Salters (ph) and all of the other young attorneys who worked hard on our behalf.

Let me also express my appreciation to the men and women who served on the jury, and thank them for their hard work for giving up their summer. They did their duty as citizens. They deliberated and they took their time and I want to thank them for their hard work and for their deliberation and for the sacrifice that they made as our citizens.

Let me also say to the people from Illinois, that from the beginning when this all happened, I told them I did not let them down. I didn't break any laws. I didn't do anything wrong. The government, the federal government and this particular prosecutor did everything he could to target me and prosecute me, persecute me, put pressure on my family, try to take our home, take me away from our kids, arrest me in the early morning hours of December 9th, with Patty and me in the bedroom and our little Annie in bed with us, a sitting governor and that very prosecutor said he was stopping a crime spree before it happened. Well this jury just showed you notwithstanding the fact that this government and the power and the resources they bring to bear, this jury just showed you notwithstanding that the government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me that on every count except for one and every charge except for one they could not prove that I did anything wrong, that I did break any laws except for one nebulous charge from five years ago, a conversation that I had with the FBI, where the FBI and I agreed to that interview, refused to allow me to have a court reporter in the room. I want the people of Illinois to know that I did not lie to the FBI.

I have told the truth from the very beginning. This is a persecution. We have police officers who are being gunned down on the streets and children who can't play in front of their homes in the summertime, because they might get gunned down and we have a prosecutor who has wasted and wants to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep persecuting me, persecuting my family, taking me away from my little girls as well as take my home away from us.

But I want to thank the men and women of the jury for what they came up with. Most people say you can't fight city hall and most people have said from the very beginning, when the federal government and these prosecutors come after you like they did me and they threw everything they could at me 24 charges that I have said from the beginning are false and the jury agreed that the government did not prove its case, and let me also point out -- and let me also point out that we didn't even put a defense on and the government could not prove its case.

So Patty and I are going to continue to fight, because this fight is a lot bigger than just me and my family. This is a fight for the very freedoms that we as Americans enjoy. The right to be able to be innocent, the right to be able to do your job and to not be lied about. So we will continue to fight, and again, I just want to express my gratitude to the men and women of the jury and remind the people of Illinois, I did not let you down. The jury has shown to the government who could not prove that I did anything wrong. We will appeal that lying decision, and we're hopeful that the laws are on our side with regard to that.