Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested at his North Side home Tuesday morning. His chief of staff John Harris was taken into federal custody as well.
The criminal complaint by the FBI agents said the two had been arrested on federal corruption charges. Each were arrested on two charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.
Blagojevich and Harris will have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court Tuesday.
The arrest is the latest step in a three-year probe of "pay-to-play politics" in the governor's administration. A statement by U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said Blagojevich and Harris "allegedly conspired to sell U.S. Senate appointment, engaged in pay-to-play schemes and threatened to withhold state assistance to Tribune Company for Wrigley Field to induce purge of newspaper editorial writers."
Federal authorities were permitted by a judge to record the governor secretly before the November election after raising concerns that a replacement for President-elect Barack Obama would be tainted.
Fitzgerald's office said the 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was taped conspiring to sell or trade Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife.
According to the affidavit, Blagojevich floated the idea of "a substantial salary for himself at a either a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions;" a corporate board seat for his wife worth as much as $150,000 a year; promises of campaign funds, including cash up front; and a Cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.
