Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich leaves his home in Chicago, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009. Blagojevich called his Senate impeachment trial on whether to remove him from office a "sham" because he felt the proceedings were unfair.

(Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo )

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial opened Monday with a vacant chair reserved for the governor, who boycotted the proceedings and instead spent the day on the TV talk-show circuit in New York, complaining he is being railroaded.

"The fix is in," Blagojevich declared on ABC's "Good Morning America."

As the Illinois Senate assembled for the first impeachment trial of a U.S. governor in more than 20 years, David Ellis, the House-appointed prosecutor, told the chamber he will show that Blagojevich "repeatedly and utterly abused the powers and privileges of his office."

In one of his first orders of business, Ellis won approval from the Senate to summon as a witness an FBI agent who oversaw the profanity-laden wiretaps that led to Blagojevich's arrest on corruption charges last month.