The Chicago Tribune has posted the text of the federal complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  It’s a fascinating read.  And one of the specific charges seems to strongly imply that the Governor or his representatives contacted someone in the Obama campaign seeking to trade the designation of Barack Obama’s successor in the Senate for the job as Secretary of HHS.  Did Obama or someone from the transition team inform the FBI of the attempt?  That seems entirely possible:

Defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS, together with

others, attempted to use ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s authority to appoint a United States Senator

for the purpose of obtaining personal benefits for ROD BLAGOJEVICH, including, among

other things, appointment as Secretary of Health & Human Services in the President-elect’s

administration, and alternatively, a lucrative job which they schemed to induce a union to

provide to ROD BLAGOJEVICH in exchange for appointing as senator an individual whom

ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS believed to be favored by union officials and

their associates.

Where else would the FBI have learned of the proposed deal, if not from the Obama campaign?

Blagojevich is also accused of trying to blackmail the Chicago Tribune to force the company to fire one or more members of its editorial board:

Defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS, together with
others, offered to, and threatened to withhold from, the Tribune Company substantial state
financial assistance in connection with Wrigley Field, which assistance ROD
BLAGOJEVICH believed to be worth at least $100 million to the Tribune Company, for the
private purpose of inducing the controlling shareholder of the Tribune Company to fire
members of the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, a newspaper owned by the Tribune
Company, who were responsible for editorials critical of ROD BLAGOJEVICH;

Read the complaint here