Yep, that’s the question. I presume that in general, there’s an answer to this, but if it’s state specific, I’m asking about Illinois. Am I correct that an indictment is an official charge of a specific crime? Could discussions between now and then cause the Blagojevich indictment to be phrased entirely differently from that of the complaint filed yesterday?
In Mr. Blago’s case, Illinois procedure doesn’t apply, since this is a federal criminal matter.
A complaint is generally the initiation of a criminal or civil matter, in this case the complainant is Special Agent Daniel Cain of the FBI, and he is complaining to the judge about all the illegal acts he has collected evidence about. The complaint asks the judge to issue arrest warrants for Rod Blagoyavich and John Harris.
However, being arrested doesn’t mean you’re being charged with a crime. The federal system requires that a grand jury issue an indictment for all felony cases. In the coming weeks, a grand jury will be empaneled, listen to all the same evidence in the criminal complaint plus new evidence that they have gathered, and issue an indictment. The indictment formally lays out all the specific charges, and the defendants will enter their pleas to each charge at a subsequent arraignment (notwithstanding any plea-bargaining that may go on in the meantime.)
So this language “…From in or about 2002 to the present, in Cook County, in the Northern District of Illinois, defendants did, conspire with each other and with others to devise and participate in a scheme to defraud the State of Illinois and the people of the State of Illinois of the honest services…” etc. might not appear in the indictment at all?