Impeachment Update: U.S. Attorney to Ask to Release Some Audio of Blago Wiretaps (UPDATED x3)

I snuck away from work for a few minutes to listen to the impeachment proceedings occurring now before the House committee. You can watch the video or listen to the audio here. (h/t Capitol Fax Blog).

Just a few tidbits- first, as I understood a comment from Chairman Currie just a few minutes ago, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald will be going to court on Jan. 5th to ask to provide the audio of some of the conversations that were recorded from the tap on Governor Blagojevich's phone lines. No information as to which or how many such conversations will be made available. I'm assuming that if they are provided to the committee, that means the public will get them as well, since these proceedings are being broadcast, but perhaps I should not simply make that assumption.

Fitzgerald had previously left open the door on this request by the committee, after refusing several others. For more background, see the Sun-Times story here.

Also, Representative Jim Durkin had an interesting line of comments on the Obama report of contacts from attorney Greg Craig. Among other comments, Durkin pointed out that there was little or no indication in the report as to what direct discussions, if any, Craig had with any of the Obama staffers, and thus, Durkin did not seem inclined to give the report a lot of weight. Blago's attorney, Ed Genson, had submitted the report as evidence that Blago did nothing wrong, but it looks like the committee's impeachment work could shed some more light on that document, which we and many other spaces have already criticized.

I'm sure there will be a lot more in the news today and tomorrow as this process continues.

UPDATED: Capitol Fax Blog reports that four conversations (in 'redacted' form, so maybe that means it'll just be a transcript and not the audio recording) are the subject of the U.S. Attorney's request, which conversations deal with "Fundraiser A" and steering casino revenue to horseracing. So, it may not be as interesting as I thought, but we'll see.

UPDATED x2: Here's a Crain's story.

UPDATED x3 12.30.08: Here's full coverage of yesterday's impeachment hearings from the Tribune and the Daily Herald.