Blagojevich guilty on 17 counts

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was found guilty of corruption by a federal grand jury in Chicago.

Blagojevich told reporters his hands are shaking, my knees are weak, before making his way to the court today.

Earlier the jury told Federal Judge James Zagel that, after nine days of deliberating, they had reached a verdict on 18 of the 20 counts Mr. Blagojevich faced.

The jury has come to a unanimous decision on 18 of 20 counts ... We are confident that we will not be able to come to agreement on the two counts even with further deliberation, a note from the jury read.

It took the jury barely 10 days of deliberation to deliver a unanimous vote after the retrial where Blagojevich took the stand and denied all 20 counts against him. Amid the allegations one is that he tried to sell or trade President Barrack Obama's old Senate seat.

During his first trial, jurors were deadlocked after deliberating for 14 days. They were able to reach an agreement on just one of 24 counts presented to them by federal prosecutors; however they were able to agree on just one of the 24 counts that Blagojevich had lied to FBI agents, he faces up to five years at sentencing for that conviction.

When sentenced the disgraced former governor faces 350 years in federal prison when all counts are added up although federal guidelines dictate his sentence would be far less.

The central tenet of the trial was deciding whether the garrulous rhetoric Blagojevich uttered to aides and others on the phone was just talk or part of what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called a political crime spree.

Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008, after an FBI wiretap on his home and work phones which lead to his impeachment by the Illinois Legislature a month later.

The case quickly became a media sensation as the indicted governor appeared on TV reality shows and late night talk shows.

During his retrial Blagojevich called Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to testify in court.