Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Asserts His Innocence on 'The View'

Sept. 9, 2009 — -- Indicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said today that the allegations against him are "false" and that he believes he will be "fully vindicated" of the corruption charges brought against him earlier this year.

Blagojevich and his wife Patti appeared today on ABC's "The View" to discuss the former governor's new memoir "The Governor," which addresses the corruption scandal that eventually led to his impeachment and removal from office by the Illinois Senate in January 2009.

"A terrible and unfair thing has happened to Patti, our daughters, and the people of Illinois," Blagojevich told the show's panel, which today included guest co-host Meghan McCain, the daughter of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"It's very hard when you're falsely accused of things," he said. "I didn't do what they say."

Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on a string of corruption charges, including that he was allegedly peddling Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Asked why he decided to publish a book in advance of his June 2010 trial – a move guest McCain called "ballsy" – Blagojevich said, "When you have power forces that falsely accuse you of things and allege things that aren't true and have the resources that the government does you have to ask yourself, what can you rely on?"

"I'm relying on the power of the simple truth," he said. "It's not any less true if I write it in a book or talk about it in the court of law. The truth is the truth."

Blagojevich referred to the allegations against him as an "upside-down mutilation of the truth" and described the December morning when FBI investigators stormed into his Chicago-area home at dawn.

"What happened to us – and I write in the book extensively about it – were super-sensational allegations made in a super-sensational way," said Blagojevich. "There were FBI agents in our bedroom at 6 a.m."

"You don't arrest someone unless they are a threat to his or her community or a threat to flee," he said. "I was the governor."