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."

On August 17, after deliberating for 14 days, a jury in a federal corruption trial convicted Rod Blagojevich of lying to the FBI but said they were deadlocked on the other 23 counts against the former governor as well as the four against Robert Blagojevich.

Prosecutors have vowed to retry Rod Blagojevich, who faced charges including racketeering, wire fraud, attempted extortion and bribery. The two-term Democrat was removed from office in January 2009 amid accusations that he attempted to sell the U.S. Senate seat that Barack Obama held before he was elected president.

The former governor will be retried after the first of 2011, said his lead attorney, Samuel Adam Sr.

Adam indicated that he is not happy at the limit placed on the number of federally funded attorneys on Blagojevich's legal team.

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. The last trial was funded with nearly $3 million in campaign money.

"You saw what happened in court. We're now down one defendant, one less charge, and we're down about eight lawyers," Adam said.

He said he thought Zagel was wrong to say he could appoint only two attorneys. Attorneys in the case have gone through piles of papers and listened to hours of taped conversations. "We have millions of documents to go over. We had 20 people working full-time on this case," he said.

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