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FBI notes: Obama's incoming chief of staff pushed Lisa Madigan for Obama's old Senate seat

Photo: U.S. Embassy in Japan / Public domain (source)

FBI Notes Show Rahm Emanuel Pushed Lisa Madigan for Obama’s Seat Before Blagojevich’s Arrest

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanSeptember 19, 2026 · 5 min read
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Partially redacted FBI interview records obtained by Fox News show that Rahm Emanuel, then President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff, pressed Rod Blagojevich’s office to appoint Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to Obama’s vacant Senate seat in December 2008, and that Obama told agents Emanuel “had an open line of conversation with the Blagojevich administration.” According to Fox News, which reported on the records on September 18, 2026, the interview notes were kept out of both of Blagojevich’s criminal trials and away from the public until now.

The documents matter because Lisa Madigan is the name at the center of Blagojevich’s defense. For nearly two decades the former governor has said the “deal” he was working on was not a sale of the seat for cash, but a political trade: appoint Madigan in exchange for her father, then-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, backing his health care package and budget.

What the FBI notes say

The records are FD-302s, the forms FBI agents use to summarize interviews. According to Fox News, Obama sat for his interview on December 18, 2008, nine days after Blagojevich was arrested. Emanuel was interviewed on December 20.

Obama’s 302 records that he was asked “whether he was aware of Emanuel having a conversation with the Blagojevich administration regarding Lisa Madigan being considered for the Senate seat in exchange for legislation being passed.” The notes then state: “Emanuel would have been aware that Lisa Madigan was an acceptable candidate to Obama. Emanuel had an open line of conversation with the Blagojevich administration.”

Emanuel’s own interview is more specific. On December 8, 2008, the notes say, “(David) Axelrod and Emanuel went to see (U.S. Senator Dick) Durbin, D-Ill. In this meeting, they all agreed that Lisa Madigan would be a good candidate.” The next line reads: “As a result of this conversation, Emanuel contacted (Blagojevich Chief of staff, John) Harris and told him the merits of appointing Lisa Madigan as Senator.”

Blagojevich was arrested at his Chicago home early the next morning, December 9, 2008. Then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told the public his office had stepped in to stop “what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree.”

The notes do not, as reported by Fox News, show Obama agreeing to any trade, and Fox reports that Obama said he “did not want to put his thumb on the scale.” What they do show is that in the days before the arrest, the president-elect’s top aide was actively selling the governor’s office on Madigan, the very candidate Blagojevich says he was about to appoint.

Blagojevich: “Front and center”

Blagojevich told Fox News the records vindicate his account. “That just proves the Madigan deal was very much front and center. It was something I was about to do,” he said. “There never was a crime spree that Mr. Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney, said he was stopping to justify arresting a sitting governor in his home.”

He also had a view of the man on the other end of the phone line. “Rahm’s a crafty, political, crafty, cunning and very effective political operator,” Blagojevich said. “He was interested in being closer to the king.”

Fox News said it reached out to Obama and Emanuel and that neither responded.

What was already known, and what is new

Emanuel’s contacts with the governor’s office were not a total secret. On December 23, 2008, the Obama transition released an internal review by Greg Craig, who became White House counsel. As the Christian Science Monitor reported at the time, the Craig report said Emanuel had “about four” conversations about the Senate seat with Harris, passed along names of candidates Obama considered qualified, and later presented others, including Lisa Madigan. Craig called those conversations “totally appropriate and acceptable,” according to CBS News.

But that report was, as CBS noted, the Obama team investigating itself, based on staff interviews taken at their word. The newly reported FBI notes add details the Craig report did not include: the December 8 meeting with Axelrod and Durbin, the agreement that Madigan “would be a good candidate,” and Emanuel’s follow-up contact with Harris pressing “the merits of appointing Lisa Madigan” after that meeting. They also record Obama’s own acknowledgment that Madigan was acceptable to him and that his chief of staff had an open line to the governor’s office.

The notes contain other details. According to Emanuel’s interview, Obama first wanted Valerie Jarrett for the seat before deciding to bring her to the White House as a senior adviser, while Emanuel kept pushing for Jarrett to go to the Senate because, as the president-elect’s best friend, having her on the White House staff would be awkward. Obama eventually told Emanuel the decision was final.

Where everyone ended up

Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to the seat. He was impeached in January 2009, and after a first trial ended in a hung jury on 23 of 24 counts, he was convicted in 2011 on corruption charges and sentenced to 14 years. According to Capitol News Illinois, President Trump commuted that sentence in February 2020, and on February 10, 2025, granted Blagojevich a full pardon.

Mike Madigan, the speaker whose support Blagojevich says he was bargaining for, was later convicted in a separate federal corruption case. In June 2025 he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and fined $2.5 million.

None of this erases what Blagojevich said on the wiretaps, which is what prosecutors built their case around. But it does raise a fair question that has gone unanswered for 18 years: if the government had records showing the president-elect’s chief of staff was promoting the same Madigan appointment the defendant said he was negotiating, why, as Fox News reports, did neither jury ever see them?

The man who went to prison said the Madigan deal was real, and now the FBI’s own notes show Obama’s incoming chief of staff pushing the very same Madigan appointment.

Sources

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