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Blago's Father-in-Law Problem

Family Ties

Richard Mell was governor's "king-maker."

To Gov. Rod Blagojevich's many problems, we can now add a disappointed father-in-law. Richard Mell, who once bragged about being "the governor-in-law," introduced Blago to his daughter in the 1980s. After they wed, Mell served as kingmaker, boosting Blago's candidacy for governor of Illinois, a former Chicago City Council member said. "We figured, if someone wants to cut your throat, you don't give them the knife to do it," Mell told Newsweek. But the power duo had a bitter falling out in 2005 and Mell "went public, claiming Blagojevich was trading positions for money—a charge that surely caught the attention of prosecutors," Newsweek reports. Now Mell doesn't talk to Blago or his daughter.

Read it at Newsweek

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