SPRINGFIELD, Ill. AP – U.S. Sen. Roland Burris won’t face a perjury charge over statements he made to state lawmakers investigating how he got his job, but the junior senator still faces the task of salvaging his political future and shaking the stigma of his link to the disgraced former governor who put him in office.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Schmidt announced Friday that there was insufficient evidence to prove Burris lied to a state House impeachment committee investigating then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brazen choice of Burris to fill President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. The FBI had arrested Blagojevich three weeks earlier on an array of corruption charges, including one that he tried to auction off the Senate seat in exchange for political or personal cash.
