Prosecutors ask to drop power broker from Blagojevich corruption trial

CHICAGO – Prosecutors asked a federal judge Friday to drop millionaire power broker William Cellini from Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial, while the former governor asked that the trial scheduled for June be postponed for months.

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel is likely to grant the motion, which would allow for a separate trial but not dismiss any charges, because Cellini’s lawyers have been seeking the same thing.

Cellini, a Springfield lobbyist-businessman for decades viewed as one of the most influential behind-the-scenes men in Illinois politics, is charged with attempting to extort a payoff or hefty contribution for the Blagojevich campaign from a Hollywood producer whose money management firm did business with the state.

A message was left for Cellini’s chief defense counsel, Dan K. Webb, whose office said he was traveling. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment.

Dropping Cellini from the trial would mean only Blagojevich and his brother, Robert Blagojevich, would still face a set trial in the case that includes allegations the former governor tried to sell President Obama’s former Senate seat.

Two key former Blago-jevich aides, Alonzo Monk and John Harris, have pleaded guilty and the former governor’s one-time top fundraiser, Christopher G. Kelly, died of an apparent suicide in September days before he was to go to prison.

Prosecutors said in court papers that “following the guilty pleas of Harris and Monk and in the light of the unexpected death of Kelly, the government now agrees that a severance is warranted.”

“In particular, it was the allegations and evidence against Kelly that provided much of the rationale to keep the defendants together in one trial,” they said.