(This interview first aired in January 2016)
Bernard Sieracki is no stranger to Illinois government. He's lobbied for decades. But what he witnessed 8 years ago this month stood out.
Sieracki said he knew history was being made when the General Assembly acted to impeach and remove Rod Blagojevich from the Governor's Office. Blagojevich had been arrested in December of 2008. Among the charges against him, that he tried to sell President Obama's old U.S. Senate seat. The law allowed him to appoint a replacement after Obama was elected President.
Sieracki sat through hours of testimony and then went back and interviewed dozens of people who were involved in the process. It's all spelled out in his book "A Just Cause - The Impeachment and Removal of Governor Rod Blagojevich."
"There had been several books on Blagojevich, but no one really focused on what the legislature did," he said. "I wanted someone 100 years from now to go to the library and get this book and be right there."
"Everyone I talked to is confident they made the right call (to impeach and remove)," Sieracki said. "I've never talked to anyone who expressed a regret."
Blagojevich is currently serving a 14 year federal prisonn term.
