Tribune Story Forced Feds to Arrest Blago Early

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald must have been grinding his teeth as he arrested Rod Blagojevich Tuesday morning, reports the Wall Street Journal. Fitzgerald’s team had been salivating over the prospect of catching the sale of Barack Obama’s Senate seat on tape, but those hopes were dashed when the Chicago Tribune ran the story about the investigation on Friday, Dec. 5—a story it had held at Fitzgerald's request since October.

Just a day before, after almost a month's silence on the Senate seat, Blagojevich had allegedly told his brother to begin collecting money from “Candidate 5,” Jesse Jackson Jr. When Blagojevich saw the Tribune story, he called his brother to tell him to “Undo” that “thing.” The frustrated feds put down their headphones and drew up the paperwork to arrest him. (More Rod Blagojevich stories.)