BREAKING: ABC News Reports $100,000 From Rezko That Obama Hasn’t Returned/Given Away
By SusanUnPC on January 25, 2008 at 6:44 PM in Barack Obama, Chicago politics, Tony Rezko
Brian Ross has done it again. This is a KEY line: News organizations have found “Rezko-linked contributions that are more than double what the campaign has publicly acknowledged…” Be sure to watch Nightline tonight:
… “We have returned any money that we know was associated to Mr. Rezko,” Obama told Diane Sawyer on Wednesday morning during an appearance on “Good Morning America.” …
The Obama campaign says it has given away more than $85,000 in Rezko-linked contributions since Rezko was indicted on federal fraud and extortion charges in the fall of 2006.
An ABCNews.com review, however, has identified an additional $100,000 in contributions made to Obama from Rezko’s associates that have not been returned, including $19,500 in contributions from Rezko’s wife and employees of Rezko’s business enterprises. The ABCNews.com review includes individuals who have been linked to Rezko in news reports, court documents and public records.
“ABC News: How Much Did an Accused Political Fixer Raise for Obama?” notes that:
Other news organizations have reviewed Obama’s campaign finance records and have also found Rezko-linked contributions that are more than double what the campaign has publicly acknowledged. The Chicago Sun-Times, which published its review last June, found that “Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and his circle,” and earlier this week the Los Angeles Times reported that it had found that Rezko and his associates had given “Obama more than $200,000 in donations since 1995.”
ADD TO THAT THESE FACTS:
1/25/2008 9:32:51 AM
Today, NBC aired an undated photo of Hillary and Bill Clinton taken with Tony Rezko and tried to compare that picture to Sen. Obama’s 17-year relationship with the indicted influence peddler. Over the course of her career, Hillary has probably taken tens of thousands of photos. Here are some facts you should know:
Tony Rezko has never contributed a dime to Hillary or Bill Clinton. They have no relationship with Tony Rezko.
Tony Rezko has been described as Sen. Obama’s “political patron” and friend of 17 years.
Tony Rezko and his associates have directly donated over $200,000 to Sen. Obama, and bundled more, but Sen. Obama has only returned $85,000. Sen. Obama’s name recently appeared in court documents because it was revealed some money Rezko raised was funneled through at least one straw donor or stolen from the government.
Sen. Obama wrote letters to city and state officials that helped secure $14 million for Rezko in taxpayer money.
Sen. Obama helped Rezko impress potential investors by appearing at his business meetings.
Most famously, Sen. Obama and Rezko were involved in a controversial real estate transaction.
SEE OTHER STORIES at NoQuarter:
“You know that old maxim, ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks.’ Well, the Clintons have been throwing boulders,” says Muzzio. “And now they’ve got a hole in their house. Now they have to explain how this guy got in the picture with them. The camera’s back on them. The way to come back is to escalate it and that’s what they will do. This is a heavyweight bout and one of them’s got to win.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=4192372&page=2
Larry, I thought you wanted to learn Photoshop.
Today, NBC aired an undated photo of Hillary and Bill Clinton taken with Tony Rezko.
Thats ok. I have a picture of my Dad with Fidel and another one with Bill Clinton.
See the FACTS section above. Bill and Hillary Clinton have never received a dime from Rezko. But they do pose with hundreds of thousands of people all the time for photographs. That’s all that was.
My point. And I really do have a picture of my dad with Fidel Castro and one with Bill Clinton.
I just thought it would be fun to cut n’paste the head of just about anybody in this “vanilla” picture for a Friday laugh.
Judging by Hillary’s hair style it was in the first four years?
Rezko hasn’t aged AT ALL. I can’t say the same for Hillary and Bill.
Are they sure they want to go back to the White House???
Rezko’s partner Allison Davis donated to Bill Clinton in 1996. Throwing stones…
Does Clinton even know who Davis is, is she his “political fairy godmother?”
A lot of people contribute to Bill Clinton.
Is anyone asking Bill about the contributions?
I doubt it because it isn’t important.
There was no wrong doing by Obama or Bill Clinton.
Is this the same Davis who is listed as having donated to Clinton in 96?
http://www.newsmeat.com/campaign_contributions_to_politicians/donor_list.php?candidate_id=P20000642&li=D
I see that this person also gave funds to Biden, Carl Levin and others. Are they all to be trashed too for this NON STORY?
Good point CEE, if you aint for us then your agin us and therfore let the trash games continue.
Non-story? Stop it.
The story here is not that Tony Rezko or any of his family members contributed, bundled or otherwise raised money for Senator Obama, or anyone else, either by lawful or unlawful means, in exchange for explicit favors or apparently for no benefit at all.
The story is that the Obama campaign had declared the issue moot, because it had chosen to divest itself of sums of money equal to what it stated had been raised by Tony Rezko and his family or business associates, BUT were so sloppy in their accounting as to miss some $ 19,500 from his wife alone. THAT is the story: that their accounting, the actions taken and their claims made regarding it are so incredibly sloppy as to suggest, on its face, that the campaign intentionally underestimated the level of contributions.
Seriously: how do you miss the contributions of his WIFE in your very serious effort to limit the damage? Intentionally misleading, or simply sloppy? Does it really matter? Frankly, one is almost as bad as the other.
More mud.
Clinton hasn’t returned cash from firm under investigation
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/442035,CST-
Lawyer with Rezko link helps Hillary
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/442034,CST-NWS-clinton25.article)
June 25, 2007
BY CHRIS FUSCO, DAVE MCKINNEY AND LYNN SWEET Staff Reporters
A lawyer referenced in a public-corruption indictment of Wilmette businessman Tony Rezko is among the hosts of a Chicago fund-raising dinner tonight for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Clinton (D-N.Y.) has no direct connection to Rezko. But one of 20 “chairs” for her Palmer House Hilton event is Myron Cherry, who is among a large circle of people to be enmeshed in two federal indictments Rezko is fighting. Most of those people, including Cherry, have not been charged with any crimes.
Rezko figures more centrally to Clinton’s chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Rezko has donated money directly to Obama’s state and U.S. Senate campaigns, hosted fund-raisers for Obama and once owned a parcel of land next to Obama’s house.
In a rare confluence, the Obama campaign tonight will be raising money just blocks away from Clinton’s during an event at Fulton’s on the River restaurant.
Philip Singer, a Clinton spokesman, declined to comment about the ethics of Cherry helping host an event for the New York senator. Cherry himself said he has done nothing wrong and that his role “if any” in Rezko’s prosecution “might be as a potential witness.”
Cherry is a longtime Democratic contributor and “bundler” who has been valuable to campaigns because he can land donations from a large network of acquaintances. In March 2000, Cherry hosted President Bill Clinton at his Lincolnwood home for a fund-raiser that raised more than $700,000 for the Democratic National Committee.
In October, Cherry surfaced as “Individual H” in a Rezko fraud indictment that involves pension investments made by the Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois. He allegedly was slated to be the recipient of a fee on one proposed investment deal even though he did no work.
Unlike other people identified as “individuals” in the Rezko cases, Cherry has spoken publicly about the matter. He has said his name was inserted in the deal without his knowledge, and that he is cooperating with authorities.
“My efforts in support of numerous Democratic candidates are quite more than a few over the years,” Cherry wrote in response to a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry. “I support Senator Clinton and will support her if she is the nominee for the Democratic Party, and if the nominee is a Democratic candidate other than Senator Clinton, I will support that candidate as well.”
Cherry’s emergence as a host of the Clinton event comes as Obama has given to charity more than $37,000 from Rezko and five people referenced in Rezko’s indictments. Obama, however, has kept $2,850 from two other donors involved in the Rezko cases, though those donations are under review, Obama press secretary Bill Burton said.
===================================================================================
continue
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/06/sweet_blog_special_clinton_oba.html
I should have added these caveats:
I am an avowed supported of Senator Edwards. Quite honestly, I don’t know who triggers the gag reflex for me most: Senator Clinton, or Senator Obama. While either one is a better choice than ANY of the Republican nominees at the moment, I do not look forward to pulling the lever for either one of them.
To paraphrase Secretary Rumsfield, who I absolutely despise:
As we know, there are known knowns.
There are things [insert Senator Clinton] we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say, we know there are some things [insert Senator Obama] we do not know.
It sort of comes down to the evil we know, and the evil we do not know. Alright, maybe evil is too strong a word. I’ll let you choose a descriptor, but it must be the same for each of these candidates. You get the point.
I wish that neither one were running in the primary, but I was anointed to make that choice. Sigh…
Ah, and again I neglect to add an important thought, though slightly off topic, before pressing the Add comment button…
I am appalled at the attempts by Senator Clinton to fashion additional pre-convention support by publicly declaring that the Michigan and Florida delegates should be ’seated at the table’ so to speak, as if this was some sort of ‘let every vote count!’ issue. That’s patently ridiculous.
A clearly safe, but feeble and politically stupid move to make. Rather like supporting the effort to do the opposite in Nevada, in supporting an attempt by a third party (and a not too distant one, I might add) to effectively suppress the votes of Las Vegas workers in the at large caucuses. Unbelievable, and a clearly expedient and blatantly self-interested move in both cases. Calculated according to projected (or, in the case of Michigan) known results.
It is just this sort of behavior that drives those of us who see the Clinton dynasty as something more than the one-dimensional second coming of Camelot. This would actually, of course, be Act III - Act I being the Kennedy years, and Act II being the eight year ‘reign’ of President Clinton.
Memo to Senator Clinton: shut the hell up about issues such as this. Run on whatever merits you can muster, and quit trying to skew the outcome while bravely defending the rights of the ‘disenfranchised’ others. Whomever, they may be.
Unbelievable. Oh, and did I mention that Senator Obama is essentially no better?
It’s politics dumbass. Grow up.
Bill,
Then everyone is covering in mud. OINK!
They also gave money to Clinton.
CAN WE DROP THIS NOW??
Obama worked then for the Chicago firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
Indivs search
DAVIS, ALLISON S
CHICAGO,IL 60611
DAVIS MINER BARNHILL & GALLAN
6/30/1995
$1,000
Clinton
After earning his degree, Obama returned to Chicago, ran a voter registration drive, began work on an autobiography and in 1993 went to work in a small but influential law firm now known as Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
The firm had long served non-profits engaged in affordable housing, and several initiatives involved Rezko’s Rezmar Corp…
In addition, one of the law firm’s founding partners, Allison Davis, developed personal financial ties to Rezko.
one line jumps out at me:
why the hell was he writing an autobiography at this time in his life … come on … other then priming a political campaign it makes no sense.
These constant negative attacks by the Clinton camp have no effect on my opinion of Obama, but they’re making me like Clinton less and less.
zeke are there any circumstances that would allow you to examine your support of obama? would you care for the clintons less and less no matter where the facts came from? cause let me tell you, many of the concerns being generated about obama do not originate from the clinton campaign … many others are questioning him.
Susan,
There’s nothing to suggest unethical behavior or wrongdoing on Obama’s part and the Chicago Tribune has fully vetted this. See MyDD.
On the other hand, did you know that the RNC has been gleefully circulating Rezko clips for weeks.
Did you know Rezko donated $15,000 to the DNC in 2000, when Clinton ally Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell was running the committee. It’s doubtful Rendell and the Clinton’s didn’t discuss Rezko’s donation. See CQPolitics. If we’re going to infer guilt by association, there may be more to that Clinton Rezko photo…
What if Obama becomes the Dem nominee? Will NQ switch gears and support him, or will NQ support McCain or whomever the GOP nominee is? I’m really worried that this constant barrage against Obama will only help the GOP.
leslie, i wont speak for susan but you are doing a “wonderful” blame the victim argument. i defy you to find one edwards or clinton supporter, on this thread, who have said they wont vote for obama if he gets the nod. i would have to hold my nose, but yes i would vote for him.
now on the other hand, numerous obama supporters have threatened not to vote for hillary if she gets the nod. they routinely issue this type of comment on this blog, dkos and huffpo. most long standing democrats are really tired of hearing this shit.
Leslie,
Thank you for pointing this out.
I’ve explained this to you before, Leslie. Here it is one more, and the last, time: As you yourself pointed out, the GOP has all of this information, and much, much more on Obama. This is NOTHING compared to what they’d do to him in a general election.
He is their DREAM candidate because they know they can beat him in the general election.
If you want to issue screeds, why don’t you write to ABC News, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Los Angeles Times (whose story I haven’t even gotten to yet), and more MSM publications who are carefully vetting every story they write?
I’m afraid you’re naive about politics. You want sweetness and kumbayah? Go to an Obama rally. You want people who can really get the job done? Volunteer for Clinton or Edwards.
He is unqualified to be president of the United States. He has no leadership experience, and he constantly runs from the facts brought up against him. He embraces GOP talking points on health care, on Social Security, on Ronald Reagan and has a fantastical view of the history of the last 15 years.
Tell your sad story to Brian Ross.
And you tell me what is not at the least UNETHICAL about Obama hiding an additional $100,000 in Rezko-based contributions.
You tell me what’s not unethical about Obama buying a $1.6 million mansion for tens of thousands below market value.
You tell me what’s not unethical about the wife of Obama’s friend Rezko buying the vacant lot next door on the SAME DAY, at FULL market price.
You tell me what’s not unethical about Obama buying a sliver of the vacant lot months later for tens of thousands of dollars above market value from Mrs. Rezko.
Most egregiously, you tell me what’s not unethical about Obama associating with an infamous SLUMLORD for SEVENTEEN years and then DENYING that he ever knew that Rezko was a slumlord?
That Obama never knew that Rezko’s tenants suffered for weeks without heat?
That Rezko failed to make his payments on the public housing properties and that the properties went to ruin and were boarded up?
That Rezko took MILLIONS from the public trough — TAXPAYER MONEY — to finance these shady deals that did NOT providing public housing as promised — and Obama claims to have NO knowledge of it?
How naive are you?
How naive do you think Brian Ross is? He knows he’s on the trail of a much bigger story. And so am I.
Buying a mansion well below cost when the resat of America’s mortgages were over values and go belly up?
That’s certain to win over a lot of undecideds…
Why would Rendell discuss a donation with the Clintons? What possible evidence is there for this? They pick up the phone everytime a rich guy donates money — when they’re receiving millions of dollars? That doesn’t make any sense.
BY THE WAY: Rezko donated $1,000 to Rick Lazio, Hillary Clinton’s GOP opposition in her 2000 race for the U.S. Senate!
In the land of the free and home of the brave enterprise is free but nothing else is.
Accordingly we have the best goddam gumint money can buy.
used to come to this blog for foreign affairs information.
Read the links on Sibel Edmonds
Larry has posted at least two stories on the first page of the blog re Gen. Casey and Sibel Edmonds.
And I try to put up an Open Thread every day or so for discussion about ANY topic. …. you can post any thoughts there, about any foreign affairs matter, and people will respond to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQysO1RPGDQ
[…] BREAKING: ABC News Reports $100,000 From Rezko That Obama Hasn’t Returned/Given Away Brian Ross has done it again. This is a KEY line: News organizations have found “Rezko-linked contributions that are more than double what the campaign has publicly acknowledged…” Be sure to watch Nightline tonight: … “We have returned any money that we know was associated to Mr. Rezko,” Obama told Diane Sawyer on Wednesday morning […] […]
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/012408a.html
Here’s a wayback that ties into Sibel’s story.
Grey Wolves ? Canis Lupis again?
The artical ended around 1996. Dollar to Donuts some of the proceeds in the artical went thru BCCI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International
Abu Nidal held accounts at BCCI’s Sloane Street branch in London.
Ah, the gun for hire.
Everyone should read this.
Abu Nidal : A Gun for Hire : The Secret Life of the World’s Most Notorious Arab Terrorist
http://www.amazon.com/Abu-Nidal-Secret-Notorious-Terrorist/dp/0679400664
What can I say. I no longer have any trust in the government.
I have never trusted government, but I was brought up to “Question Authority” . That presumes they will respond which our government has stopped doing and besides your question just became a State Secret.
Thanks for the link anyway.
I have being meaning to ask you are they sunnyside up or over easy? LOL.
This blog is getting real spooky. I will support any Democrat who gets the nom. Period. But sliming Obama like this is what Republicans do to each other. Remember what Bush did to the McCain family? This site loves Hillery, but Jesus Christ, shes not shit free people! If she does not get the nom, what are you going to do? Kick who ever it is anyways, or come out of your fog and help get a real human being elected?
On the surface, I feel very sorry that you folks have such weaselly choices. Obama, Clinton, Edwards all tarnished in some way with crony donors, fast buck artists, contingency fee lawyers, slumlords, chinese food workers. Deep down however, I enjoy the spectacle, the internicene warfare, true democratic nature red in toof and craw.
Then I look at the other team, an offshore pirate, a mad bomber, a god monger all of them trying to suck up to the money and the mantle of warlord of the world. I am so morally ecstatic that the candidate I support doesn’t have any of those issues.
I am loving how Hillary is now demanding that the primaries in Michigan and Florida be counted at the dem convention. She outfoxed the others yet again.
I look forward to seeing how any of these dems will deal with Hu and Wen and Putin and Chavez to name only four foreign leaders who appear much sharper than any of the cutlery in the American drawer.
The more you Clinton supporters continue with this type of attack the more it convinces me that I will never vote for Hillary in the primary. If she’s our Party’s nominee I will not work as I have in the past 4 elections to get her elected. I will hold my nose and vote for any damn Democrat in the General.
Larry please stick to CIA and Foreign Policy issues - your really good at it and very insightful.
Your election crap SUCKS!
[…] traction nationally. So, when people wring their hands over a story like mine yesterday, “BREAKING: ABC News Reports $100,000 From Rezko That Obama Hasn’t Returned/Given Away,” I have to ask myself if people really think that the GOP won’t use this information […]
[…] Quarter post by SusanUnPC: “BREAKING: ABC News Reports $100,000 From Rezko That Obama Hasn’t Returned/Given Away“, January 25, […]