Tuesday, December 9, 2008 3:36 PM By: David A. Patten
President-elect Barack Obama’s ties to indicted Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich run primarily through Chicago slum lord and felon Tony Rezko.
Rezko served as the political godfather for both Blagojevich and Obama, helping both to rise in Chicago and Illinois politics. Obama himself has credited Rezko with helping to his political career.
Rezko raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both politicians.
A 76-page FBI affidavit released today after the arrest of Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, says Blagojevich conspired “to sell” the Illinois Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called the effort to barter the seat the “most sinister and appalling” of a long list of accusations against Blagojevich. Blagojevich, as governor, is responsible for naming Obama’s replacement.
Rezko has had extensive ties to both men:
Rezko’s Ties to Obama
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the two met in 1990 while Obama was still attending Harvard Law School. Rezko offered Obama a job, but Obama declined. In 1995, Obama billed 32 hours for work done on behalf of Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a company involved in a low-income housing partnership with Rezko. He also wrote letters supporting the proposed development. Rezko was Obama’s second largest individual contributor when he began his run for an Illinois state Senate seat in 1995. Two Rezko companies contributed $2,000 to Obama’s campaign, and Rezko and wife Rita reportedly worked on Obama’s campaign. In the first half of 1997, according to a report by Newsmax Contributing Editor Kenneth R. Timmerman, two Rezko companies contributed $2,000 to Obama’s ongoing political operation. In the first half of 1998, Rezko provided Obama’s campaign food worth an estimated $457.70 as an “in-kind contribution.” Rezko was one of Obama’s biggest contributors when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2003 and 2004, and Rezko was a member of Obama’s campaign finance committee, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. In June 2003, Rezko held a ritzy fund-raiser for Obama at his tony Wilmette mansion. Obama later said, “Rezko was not my largest fundraiser but a significant fundraiser.” According to Reuters, Obama said Rezko raised as much as $250,000. In 2005, as news began to spread that federal authorities were investigating Rezko, Obama bought a house in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood for $1.65 million. Rezko’s wife, Rita, paid $625,000 for a lot adjacent to Obama’s new home, and the two deals closed on the same day. Seven months later, Rezko’s wife sold one-sixth of her lot – a 10-foot strip of a 60-foot lot -- to Obama for $104,500. In December 2006, Obama told the Washington Post the deal was a “boneheaded” mistake. “There’s no doubt I should have seen some red flags in terms of me purchasing a piece of property from him,” Obama said. The Post reports Rezko and Obama later “collaborated” to construct a fence to divide the two properties, which Obama said was required by city code. Obama paid for lawn maintenance for both properties. In March 2008, Obama said Rezko had raised up to $250,000 to help underwrite his prior campaigns in Illinois – a much higher figure than had previously been reported. Rezko helped Obama’s presidential campaign raise over $150,000. The campaign later donated Rezko’s contributions to charity.
Rezko Ties to Blagojevich
The FBI says between June 2001 and August 2004 Rezko raised over $1.4 million for Blagojevich’s political campaigns, according to the Los Angeles Times. (Blagojevich was elected governor of Illinois in 2002, and reelected in 2006.) Rezko hosted Blagojevich’s first post-election party at his mansion. Although he had no official role in the Blagojevich administration, he reportedly participated in several Blagojevich strategy retreats. In October 2006, authorities indicted Rezko for soliciting kickbacks from companies seeking state contracts that were awarded by officials under the governor’s authority. According to the Los Angeles Times and others, $20,000 that Rezko garnered from kickbacks found its way via a middleman into Obama’s Senate campaign coffers. Rezko’s June 2008 trial on corruption strongly implicated Blagojevich. Blagojevich allegedly discussed a state job for a donor, after that donor wrote a $25,000 check for his campaign. During the trial, prosecutors maintained that Rezko routinely arranged shakedowns while serving as a top Blagojevich adviser. In all, prosecutors said, Rezko squeezed various companies for some $7 million in kickbacks. Following his conviction on 16 counts of fraud, money laundering, and aiding and abetting bribery, Rezko said federal authorities tried to pressure him “to tell the wrong things” about the Obama and Blagojevich. The................................http://www.newsmax.com/headlin.....mp;promo_code=73FD-1
YEAH......JUST FREAKIN' YEAH......AND......now we know how it has worked all these years.......we have just exposed one of the 'monkeys' on our backs.....so what are we gonna do????.....probably the same damn thing we have been doing all this time......state"everyone does it" and then bury our head in that pile of sand over there.........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
It just seems like Obama's friends are all crooks, it's a good thing that he knew nothing about any of this or the rest of the corruption that went on in Chicago.
ABC: Jackson is 'Candidate 5' Ben Smith Ben Smith 51 mins ago
ABC News has a law enforcement source telling them that Jesse Jackson, Jr. is "Senate Candidate Five," the one who was -- according to Blagojevich -- willing to supply campaign cash in exchange for the Senate seat.
(This, incidentally, doesn't strike me as all that unusual in politics, or as obviously criminal as other things in the complaint -- though the crudeness with which Blagojevich discussed it was.)
ABC reports:
Jackson Jr. said "I don't know" when asked if he was Candidate #5, but said he was told "I am not a target of this investigation."
Jackson Jr. said he agreed to talk with federal investigators "as quickly as possible" after he consults with a lawyer.
The Congressman, a son of the famed civil rights leader, denied that anyone had been authorized to make payments or promises to the Governor on his behalf.
"It is impossible for someone on my behalf to have a conversation that would suggest any type of quid pro quo or any payments or offers," Jackson Jr. told ABC News. "An impossiblity to an absolute certainty."
Well, I guess Obama already knows how to 'duck and sway' when needed. He also already knows how to cover up and back peddle. ('I swear I never had sex with that woman') ('I swear there were weapons of mass distruction') There are enough dems and reps to fill a warehouse of corruption and lies.
President Obama........now this is change you can believe in! HA!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Blagojevich case may be trouble for new chief of staff BY BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE AND TAMMY WEBBER The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Gov. Rod Blagojevich is legendary in Illinois political circles for not picking up the phone or returning calls, even from important figures like the state’s senior senator, Dick Durbin. But there was always one call Blagojevich regularly took, say his aides, and that was from Rahm Emanuel — his congressman, his one-time campaign adviser and, more recently — and troubling for Emanuel — one of his contacts with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition staff. The friendly rapport Blagojevich and Emanuel shared over the years has suddenly become a troubling liability for Emanuel and the new president he will serve as chief of staff. Emanuel and Obama have remained silent about what, if anything, Emanuel knew of the governor’s alleged efforts to peddle Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Emanuel did contact the governor’s office about the appointment, and left Blagojevich with the impression that he was pushing Valerie Jarrett, a close Obama friend, so he wouldn’t have to compete with her in the White House for Obama’s attention, said a person close to Blagojevich. The person requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk about the governor’s discussions regarding the vacancy. It was not clear whether Blagojevich inferred Emanuel’s motive for advocating Jarrett, or whether Emanuel discussed the appointment with Blagojevich directly or with John Harris, the governor’s then-chief of staff who also is charged in the case, according to the source. Emanuel’s refusal to discuss the matter publicly, and the few comments offered by Obama to date, have prompted questions about Emanuel’s ties to Blagojevich and what fallout he’ll face as the criminal case unfolds, although sources have said he is not a target of prosecutors. Even so, any hint of scandal for Emanuel threatens to tarnish Obama’s promise of new political leadership free of scandal and corruption. Obama has said he will release a full accounting of his transition staff’s interaction with Blagojevich and his aides over his Senate replacement once he receives the OK from prosecutors sometime this week. Until then, Obama has said it would be inappropriate for him or his aides to comment further. Prosecutors refer in the 76-page complaint to the governor’s discussions on FBI tapes about a “president-elect advisor,” believed to be Emanuel, but they do not specifically cite contacts with Emanuel or anyone on Obama’s transition staff. Instead, the taped conversations reveal Blagojevich telling others to float his idea by the president’s adviser of forming a nonprofit that he hoped would, with Obama’s help, receive millions of dollars that the governor could tap later. Blagojevich said he didn’t want the idea associated directly in conversations about the Senate appointment or filling Emanuel’s seat in the House, according to the complaint. However, Blagojevich is quoted as saying “I want it to be in his head” for later discussions about Emanuel’s successor. It was Blagojevich who, seemingly out of nowhere, yanked Emanuel into his scandal when answering reporters’ questions the day before his Dec. 9 arrest, invoking his name in an apparent attempt to shrug off any perception of wrongdoing. He said he wasn’t concerned about a report in the Chicago Tribune that confidant and former aide John Wyma’s cooperation had helped lead federal prosecutors to tape the governor’s conversations. Big deal, Blagojevich said. He said he’s “always lawful” whenever he speaks, and he was confident Wyma has been “an honest person who’s conducted himself in an honest way. That’s the John Wyma I know and it’s the John Wyma that Rahm Emanuel knows and a lot of other people know.” Blagojevich is right. Wyma does have ties to both him and Emanuel, those close to ...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00300
My guess......Mr.Blagojevich truly IS surprised.....why?.....because---EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING THE SAME DAMN THING.....his staff taught him the ropes do we really think he was the only unethical person??????
Just like Mr.Spitzer and his little lay......the only reason he was 'turned out' was because he new Mr.Madoff and the folks climbing the pyramid......
PUUUUUUUULLLLLLLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although, he should have kept mr.slinky in his pants......JMHO......
Do we really think that Barak Hussein (Jesus)Obama will save us??????? And can we PLEASE steer clear of Ms.Kennedy(nothing) for senate nys senate.........future folks.............................................................................................................. future
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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