In a move that surprised just about everyone, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald dropped the four charges against Robert Blagojevich on which a jury could not reach a conclusion, meaning that the brother of Illinois’ disgraced governor will walk free from charges of corruption.  Not even his defense attorney expected a dismissal, and relayed the news to the stunned family.  The news was not so good for Rod Blagojevich today, though:

Prosecutors have dismissed all four charges against Robert Blagojevich, brother of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, defense attorney Michael Ettinger said Thursday.

“I was in shock and still am,” Ettinger said.

He said that when he told his client, Robert Blagojevich said, ” ‘Oh, my God; oh, my God.’ And I told him, ‘You’re done. You’re free.’ His wife is hysterical.”

Ettinger said prosecutors told a judge at a hearing Thursday that they were dropping the charges because of “the disparity in the roles between Robert and Rod” and “in the interests of justice.”

The federal court had bad news for his brother.  In his first trial, Blagojevich paid for a phalanx of attorneys and a legal team that numbered twenty people by using $3  million in leftover campaign funds.  This time, he doesn’t have the resources and applied instead for public funding of his defense.   Judge James Zagel ruled that Blago qualified for public defenders — but he’ll have to learn to scale down as a result:

Blagojevich qualifies for a public defender, U.S. District Judge James Zagel said, and he will appoint two attorneys and possibly a paralegal, according to CNN affiliate WGN. A pro bono attorney is allowed, but Blagojevich must disclose the source of the funds if he has any paid representation, Zagel said, according to WGN.

Needless to say, this puts quite a crimp in Blagojevich’s defense strategy.  It took that team’s combined effort just to get a hung jury. If they have to whittle it down to three people, it may be difficult to have even that level of success in a replay. Of course, as the video notes, Judge Zagel said that pro bono lawyers would be acceptable as well — but that if they get any funding, Zagel wants to know about it.

The retrial is scheduled at the moment for January 2011, but with the sharp reduction in legal staff, don’t expect it to take place then. Federal courts are a lot stricter on continuances than state courts, but considering the large number of charges and their complicated nature, I’d bet that Zagel grants at least one and moves the trial closer to the summer.