Judge nixes Blago’s Costa Rica trip

CHICAGO – A federal judge told ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday to forget about starring in a reality TV show in the Costa Rican jungle and focus instead on the corruption charges that could send him to prison for years.

“I don’t think this defendant fully understands and I don’t think he could understand ... the position he finds himself in,” U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said in denying the impeached and indicted former governor permission to leave the country.

Blagojevich, 52, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, fraud and other charges that allege he schemed to sell or trade President Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat and plotted to use the muscle of the governor’s office to pressure companies for campaign money.

Blagojevich had hoped to make some money to support his family by heading to Costa Rica in June to be on NBC’s “I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!” – a program similar to “Survivor” – while attorneys in Chicago worked on his case.

But Zagel said his time would be better spent helping his lawyers with the mound of documentary ev­i­dence prosecutors soon will turn over to the defense.

Zagel said it’s often that “the defendant never understands ... the jeopardy he is in” until he comes face to face with the evidence, and Blagojevich has not had that experience.