Michael Jackson: Does Doctor Know More About His Death?

According to a CNN report, it appears that Michael Jackson’s family believes that his personal doctor, Conrad Murray, knows more about his death. Unfortunately, hey have been unable to reach him.

From CNN:

The parents need to know what happened in the last hours of their son’s life, according to Jesse Jackson, a civil rights activist and Baptist minister unrelated to Michael Jackson.

Murray is believed to be the last person to see Michael Jackson alive.

“The routine inquiry is now an investigation,” Jesse Jackson said. “They [the Jacksons] didn’t know the doctor. … He should have met with the family, given them comfort on the last hours of their son.”

Police, who met briefly with Murray after the singer’s death, have been able to reach him and are trying to set up an interview, Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. Police said the doctor has been fully cooperative.

Jesse Jackson Jr. Cooperated With Feds for Years

Jesse Jackson Jr., who acknowledged being mentioned in a criminal complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, has been sharing information about public corruption with federal investigators for years.

From the Associated Press:

Kenneth Edmonds, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., told The Associated Press that the congressman had spoken about Blagojevich and others.

Edmonds wouldn’t give details of those discussions Tuesday, but WLS-TV in Chicago reported unidentified sources as saying Jackson had told investigators Blagojevich wouldn’t appoint Jackson’s wife as state lottery director because the congressman wouldn’t donate $25,000 to the governor’s campaign fund.

Jackson has acknowledged being the “Senate Candidate 5″ referenced in a federal complaint against Blagojevich that accuses the governor of trying to sell the Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

The complaint quoted Blagojevich as saying an associate of the candidate offered to raise money for him if he picked the candidate.

Jackson denies initiating or authorizing anyone to promise anything Blagojevich on his behalf.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan Asks For Blagojevich’s Removal From Office

Illinois’ top legal officer went to the state supreme court earlier today to try to get scandal-plagued Governor Rod Blagojevich temporarily removed from office.

From the International Herald Tribune:

Resisting calls by President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats to resign, Blagojevich showed no sign of stepping down over the accusations that he attempted to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat for campaign cash or a lucrative job.

In an unprecedented step, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the Supreme Court to declare Blagojevich unfit to serve, a move that would hand power to the lieutenant governor.

Madigan said she believes it is a faster way to remove Blagojevich from office than through impeachment, which could take several weeks. Lawmakers were gathering Monday in the state capital of Springfield to debate that possibility.

“I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances,” Madigan said at a news conference.

The move was not welcomed by everyone. Democratic Rep. Jack Franks said it would set “a dangerous precedent” for the court to remove a governor as proposed by Madigan, who is a likely candidate for governor in 2010. Franks, a fierce Blagojevich critic, said that kind of decision should be left to state lawmakers.

Nothing in the federal complaint suggests any wrongdoing by Obama or his staff. But the accusations against the fellow Democrat are an unwelcome distraction to the president-elect. It brings fresh attention to some of the unsavory characters from his Chicago political upbringing who have connections, however distant, to Obama and to questions of whether he can follow through on his message of change and clean government when he takes office next month.

Obama has said he would release the results of an internal investigation into what conversations his aides and advisers may have had with Blagojevich in a matter of days, but he drew criticism from some Republicans for refusing to answer questions about the probe.

Was Jesse Jackson Jr. ‘Candidate 5’ in Blagojevich Case?

Jesse Jackson Jr. was described in an affidavit filed in Illinois Governor  Rod R. Blagojevich’s arrest as one of at least six people being considered  to fill Barack Obama’s unfinished term in the Senate in exchange for money or a new job.

From the New York Times:

Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr., long seen here as someone who was willing, even happy, to clash with this city’s old power structure, found himself tangled up on Wednesday in the fallout from the arrest of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois — now a symbol of that old, unseemly political way.

Specifically, federal authorities said, Mr. Jackson is “Senate Candidate 5,” associates of whom, the governor said in a wire-tapped conversation, were willing to raise money for Mr. Blagojevich in exchange for the seat.

Mr. Jackson, an ambitious Democrat elected to Congress 13 years ago and the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, made a defiant appearance before reporters in Washington on Wednesday, denying unequivocally that he had offered Mr. Blagojevich anything in exchange for the Senate seat or had sanctioned any offer by an intermediary, as Mr. Blagojevich seemed to suggest in recordings.

“I did not initiate or authorize anyone at any time to promise anything to Governor Blagojevich on my behalf,” Mr. Jackson said. “I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, to plead my case or to propose a deal about a U.S. Senate seat, period.”