Roland Burris may have bigger fish to fry than a hostile Senate Ethics Committee.  Federal investigators met with Burris and his attorneys for the first time regarding his involvement with Rod Blagojevich, and it couldn’t come at a worse time.  Burris faces calls to resign and a potential investigation by the Illinois legislature for perjury:

Federal authorities questioned U.S. Senator Roland Burris today at his lawyer’s office — a long-awaited interview involving his U.S. Senate seat appointment — the Sun-Times-NBC/5 team has learned.

Burris is not accused of wrongdoing but was questioned in the case that centers on ousted Gov. Blagojevich and his alleged attempts to sell President Obama’s former seat.

Authorities interviewed Burris on a Saturday at his lawyer’s office, ostensibly to keep the exchange out of the limelight Burris has recently found himself in.

Burris admitted last week that his lawyers were in contact with the FBI about sitting for an interview, but denied that the contact was his motivation for controversially amending sworn testimony before a House impeachment panel.

Burris has issued a lot of denials that later had to get withdrawn, including denials that he had talked with Blagojevich aides about the appointment, that he had no contact regarding fundraising, and that he had agreed to fundraise for Blagojevich while pursuing the Senate appointment.  A denial from Burris has roughly the equivalent reliability of currency from Zimbabwe.  It’s more like an opening bid than a statement of fact.

The Sun-Times reports that the White House sent a signal to Burris to “consider his future”.  Will Barack Obama throw Burris under the bus?  I’d rather doubt it, despite the connection to Obama in the replacement appointment.  Traditionally, presidents do not get involved in legislative scandals, preferring to have Congressional leadership take care of their own business.  Obama doesn’t need to buy that kind of trouble, especially at the moment, when he’s rolling out his economic agenda.

If the feds find something, though, that might change.  After all, it will be Obama’s DoJ that would prosecute malefactors in any federal corruption case.  Regardless of whether Obama says something or not, he will have the responsibility of chasing the accused out of any office they may now hold, including perhaps Obama’s old Senate seat.