20-Year Associate of Obama Arrested
By SusanUnPC on January 28, 2008 at 11:33 AM in Barack Obama, Chicago politics, FBI, Patrick Fitzgerald, Tony Rezko
- Time Magazine: Tony Rezko Arrested
- Chicago Tribune: Tony Rezko arrested, sources say
- No Quarter post by SusanUnPC: “BREAKING: ABC News Reports $100,000 From Rezko That Obama Hasn’t Returned/Given Away,” January 25, 2008
By the way, on ABC’s This Week yesterday, Barack Obama said that he has had a “20-year” relationship with Tony Rezko, not the 17-year relationship typically described by newspaper reporters who are unable to interview Obama on his relationship with the influence peddler indicted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. In my Saturday story, “Politics Is A Blood Sport,” I noted that Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet pointed out that “Obama has never agreed to an interview about Rezko.”
There’s also an exceptional Boston Globe op-ed I quoted from, written by a Democratic media consultant in Boston, “Worrying about Obama“:
Who’s this slumlord? While running as a reformer, Obama has had a 17-year relationship with an indicted Chicago con man who’s going on trial for fraud, extortion, and money laundering. ABC News found that Obama has been close to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a major slumlord and wheeler-dealer who used minority set-asides and community groups as fronts to win government contracts.
As a state senator, Obama wrote letters to the city and state backing Rezko’s successful bid to get $14 million in tax money to build senior citizen housing that wasn’t in Obama’s district.
ABC and the Chicago Sun-Times both found that Obama asked for and got Rezko’s help in buying land neighboring Rezko’s property for $300,000 below the asking price. When the deal became public, Obama said it was a mistake that he regrets. He may not be done regretting it.
The Sun-Times has learned that Obama is the unnamed political candidate in the federal indictment against Rezko. His US Senate campaign got $10,000 out of quarter-million-dollar scheme engineered by Rezko.
Obama’s dealings with Rezko took place while it was well known that Rezko was under investigation by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who sent Scooter Libby to jail. Rezko goes on trial Feb. 25, three weeks after Feb. 5, when half of all the delegates will be chosen. … Read all of “Worrying about Obama.”
From today’s Chicago Tribune story on Rezko’s rearrest:
… Tom Simon, an FBI spokesman, said a bond revocation hearing was continued until 12:30 p.m.
“We can confirm that Tony Rezko was arrested without incident this morning at his home in Wilmette,” Simon said.
Rezko, a former adviser and top fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was taken into custody at O’Hare International Airport after he was indicted in 2006. He had flown back to Chicago from Syria to face charges he used his relationships with top state officials to extort companies wanting to do business with two state boards.
Rezko had been released on bail after pleading not guilty in the case, and after a group of his friends had put up nine properties worth $1.5 million to secure his release.
Rezko allegedly used the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board and the state’s Teachers Retirement System Board to extort kickbacks. Stuart Levine, a member of both, has pleaded guilty to taking part in the kickback scheme and is expected to be the key government witness against Rezko.
The government in December filed a document in the case, moving the misconduct closer to Blagojevich, described in the document as Public Official A. The document states that Blagojevich had told Levine to stick with him and his contacts and “you will do very well for yourself.”
Rezko also has become an issue in the presidential campaign because of his long association with Democratic candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. More than $80,000 in campaign contributions linked to Rezko and given to Obama have now been donated to charity.
MORE ON THE REZKO/OBAMA CONNECTIONS:
SEE OTHER STORIES and VIDEOS at NoQuarter:
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:
SOTU tonight.
Drinking game:
My drink comes for every time he says “failure is not an option.”
LOL. Mine will be the word “terrorist(s)”. Shots all around!
Mr. Murder, why was Rezko in Syria? Any ideas?
I’m hearing that Syria is becoming a happening place similar to Dubai. Don’t know if they need any more slumlord housing over there, so don’t know the answer.
If Rezko was under investigation and that normally means wiretaps…I would suspect the “minimization process” will not include certain phone calls that have been made to Rezko. Just a thought.
From the Globe article
If he runs, he could siphon off enough votes from Democrats and independents to elect a Republican.
This will happen if Hillary is the nominee.
Nothing in the article has moved me to change my mind.
Mr. Murder,
Whadda havin’?
I’ll drink at bit Lemoncello every time he mentions freedom. I’ll pre-arrange the ambulance ride.
Now, Cee. We love you but we know you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid.
If I had a video showing Obama murdering someone, you’d find a way to spin it.
Nothing will affect your enchantment with the big O.
No Susan CEE or me or Shirin and many otheres are not blinded by Hillary.
Further more we are not enchanted with Obama we are DISENCHANTED with the pro-hillary-she can do no wrong slant of this blog and we will continue to point that out as well as defend Obama from your continuous unreasonable Obama trashing unless you knock us off.
There are many of us that are not blinded by the Clintons, myself included. Hillary AND Bill have disappointed me tremendously in the past few weeks with their belly aching and finger pointing. Neither Obama OR Hillary are addressing the issues I want to hear about.
Chill, BIll.
And this Rezko type business, (money laundering and such for campaign purposes and personal wealth) is apparently prevalent in Congress.
So if Hillary has financed herself in this way, also, like Obama, it’s just as bad.
Otherwise it would be hypocritical, and ultimately, this is about a better United States government, not any one candidate.
Hilla the Hun just makes some of us puke LESS than the others. I personally like Edwards, me and him being cracker-boys, but I don’t think he’ll fly with Wall Street. And that, of course, is where it counts.
Susan,
LOL!
Rezko is Syrian so perhaps he was visting relatives.
SusanUnPC: re What’s he doing in Syria?
Perhaps a “flight risk” ?
from the Chicago Tribune link:
A bond hearing is not exactly something they call out the SWAT team and FBI HRT’s for. Just ordinary, procedural stuff.
DEVIL’s ADVOCATE: He hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, no matter how much of a cheeseball he appears to be.
Fitz isn’t the kind of prosecutor to laugh at.
Major reputation, more convictions vs. Al Qaeda than anyone in the world.
1993 must have been a frustrating year in the So dist of NY for him. Seems like he has a great posse to boot.
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