KANKAKEE, Ill., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., said he hopes to be "vindicated" in the House ethics probe into his alleged attempts at trying to secure a vacant Senate seat.
The seat in question was left open by President Obama when he took presidential office in 2008 and prosecutors allege Jackson had spoken to two associates about making an offer to then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich for the position.
Jackson, at a Kankakee County NAACP annual dinner Saturday, told the Chicago Tribune he never had any interaction with Blagojevich's brother and head of campaign fundraising, Robert Blagojevich.
"I don't know him. I never had a conversation with him and by definition, I never asked anybody to talk to him," Jackson told the Tribune of Robert Blagojevich after appearing at the Kankakee County NAACP's annual dinner. "I didn't even know he existed until the trial. I don't know him. I never met him."
Jackson called the House Committee on Ethics probe a distraction in his campaign for the newly drawn 2nd Congressional District.
"I believe in the American system of justice. The process is continuing and in the end I believe I will be vindicated," Jackson told the NAACP audience.
