Judge Zagel threatens to hold Blagojevich lawyer in contempt; attorney vows to go to jail

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

A fiery clash between Rod Blagojevich's lawyer and judge broke out at the end of court, with the judge threatening to hold Sam Adam Jr. in contempt of court if he didn't abide by his ruling and Adam later vowing to go to jail over the dispute.

The jury was out of the room when the clash happened. It ultimately sidetracked the trial for the day and it's back on tomorrow morning.

Zagel told Adam he could not tell jurors in his closing argument that the government had refused to call 35 witnesses named in the indictment, including Tony Rezko, Bill Quinlan and Stuart Levine.

"I don't want to get into the classic mode that if the facts are against you and the law is against you, then attack the opposing lawyer. That's all you're doing," Zagel said. "The fact is, you cannot draw an evidentiary inference from the fact a witness was not called by the other side when you had an equal right to call them."

Blago's team is preparing for an appeal before conviction.