U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., won't face a perjury charge over statements he made to state lawmakers investigating how he got his job, but the junior senator still faces the task of salvaging his political future and shaking the stigma of his link to the disgraced former governor who put him in office.
Sangamon County State's Attorney John Schmidt announced Friday that there is insufficient evidence to prove Burris lied to a state House impeachment committee investigating then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brazen choice of Burris to fill President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. The FBI had arrested Blagojevich three weeks earlier on an array of corruption charges, including one that he tried to auction off the Senate seat.
"I have never engaged in any pay-to-play, never perjured myself, and came to this seat in an honest and legal way," Burris says in a written statement responding to the news.
The Associated Press
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