Testimony in the federal corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich wrapped up Wednesday without the ousted Illinois governor taking the stand in his own defense.

After months of professing his innocence in impromptu news conferences, on Twitter and even on Donald Trump’s show “Celebrity Apprentice,” Blagojevich’s testimony had been highly anticipated. But his lawyers rested their case Wednesday morning, and closing arguments are set to begin Monday.

“It is my decision, on the advice of my attorneys, not to testify in this case,” Blagojevich announced in court.

The two-term Democrat was removed from office in January 2009 amid accusations that he had attempted to sell the U.S. Senate seat that had been occupied by Barack Obama before he became president. In one conversation recorded by federal agents, he told an aide, “I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden. I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing.”

His brother, Robert Blagojevich, testified Tuesday that the governor was “trying to politically work something to his benefit” in handling the appointment — but was thinking in terms of political horse-trading, not corruption.

“It didn’t seem out of the ordinary, because Obama was taking a lot of people from Illinois with him to D.C.,” said Robert Blagojevich, who raised money for his brother. He said the governor “was interested in the idea of being the head of Health and Human Services.”

But prosecutors argued that Blagojevich and his inner circle engaged in a near-constant conspiracy of extortion and kickbacks after his 2002 election.

(Source: CNN)