Rezko Trial Begins Today

Chicago Tribune:

Antoin "Tony" Rezko is set to go on trial Monday, but the defense is expected at every opportunity to try to put his chief accuser on trial as well.

Prosecutors allege that Rezko misused the power he gained from his prowess as a fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, scheming to extort kickbacks from firms seeking state business or regulatory approval. But Rezko's lawyers will attack the credibility of Stuart Levine, the government's key witness, questioning his memory of events because of his alleged heavy use of cocaine, crystal meth and other illegal drugs.

Read the whole story: Chicago Tribune

Comments

[IndieGirl]

I wish you guys would research your facts before speaking. Did you guys know that Rezko raised money for President Bush in 2003? Before you go on your high horse, know the facts and the spin.

[Durango]

I am tired of theses stories where someone is tied to someone who is a campaign contributor and is a crook. That goes for Obama, Hllary and McCain.

What has been left out of the above story is who is doing the prosecuting? If it is the Feds I would take this all with a shaker full of salt. SEE: Alberto Gonzalas and the Federal Attorney scandal.The timing is suspicious, to say the least

[hank48188]

Looks like the bloom is coming off the rose, Obama is just getting hammered by even the MSM this week, what a switch. I think Hillary wins 3 today, OH, TX, RI. And it seems like the Kool-Aid drinkers are starting to see the light, I don't see many posting from them defending their pure hope, they see he's just a dirty politician from Chicago, the Home of crooked Gov't

[rollingdivision]

Since when does just saying your knowingly unethical behavior was "a boneheaded move" make what you did acceptable? And it also makes your refusal to release all documentation and answer questions about your unethical deal acceptable. That's all it's takes, simply say it was a boneheaded move and then everything is forgiven.

[jeffhas]

"Yeah Michelle, I'm just walking around our new 1.65 million dollar home with my friend, oops, I mean, not my friend, Antoine Rezko, I mean why would I be walking around my new PERSONAL residence with someone who is a friend... Rezko is not a friend.... he's just helping me with my personal residence - no questions asked, no favors needed... you know Michelle"

"Hey Michelle, these pesky owners are trying to bundle the sale of the adjacent lot next door to our new house, and Antoine has been so kind as to offer up to buy the lot... but he won't actually buy it, he'll have his wife buy it for us, uh... I mean for him...."

"Yeah Michelle, Antoine thinks his wife will love the property, except maybe the one-third that's close to our house... they think maybe they should sell that back to us a year or so down the road, but at today's market value!!... Yeah I know, how lucky can we be to have friends, uh... I mean acquaintances that I've done a few hours of work for, like Antoine Rezko"

[jeffhas]

This is not the only slime on this man... check out what he did to Alice Palmer... a long-standing Democratic Congresswoman. Her mistake was doing what her Party asked and running for an open seat in a usually Republican district. She chose to have Barack Obama appointed as a 'place-sitter' just in case she couldn't win the other district for the Dems.

Well, when she didn't win the Repub seat, she came back to her district, and Obama would not give the congressional seat back to her.

He and Michelle actually SUED to keep her name off the ballot. Obama won, and Alice Palmer faded away.

So that's what you get if you're a woman in Chicago Politics facing Barack Obama.... the shaft.

I mean as a cooperating Democrat, you know he would've been given preferential treatment when another congressional seat came up... but he's such an opportunist, that he tossed Party loyalty - not to mention a lot of personal loyalty shown to him by Ms. Palmer - and went for the whole enchilada.

Why does this seem familiar... oh yeah, because the same thing is happening RIGHT NOW!.... our entire party is being hijacked by people who couldn't care less about the Party as a whole - or Party loyalty... they just want what they want NOW.... like a bunch of spoiled brats.... and there are lots of people who will not open their eyes to this huckster.

Be careful what you wish for.

[kaafir]

Obambi is not so pure and virginal as the left wing media make him out to be. The story that the main stream media have been ignoring is the relation of Tony Rezko and Obama. Rezko is currently facing federal charges of attempted extortion, money laundering, and fraud. The trial of political fundraiser Antoin Rezko has been delayed one week to give his attorneys more time to prepare. Rezko has raised thousands of dollars for U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Governor Rod Blagojevich. It is nothing short of a political godfather story. The tale of an eager, brilliant, ambitious man wanting to rise in politics, and the man who had the money to make it happen. It's the real true tale of Barack Obama and Antoin "Tony" Rezko and the Faustian political deal made in the quest for power, fame and political prowess, which would eventually lead to a bid for the presidency.

In June 2007, the Sun-Times published a story about letters Obama, as a community organizer had written in 1997 to city and state officials in support of a low-income senior citizen development project headed by Rezko and partner Allison Davis. The project received more than $14 million in taxpayer funds, including $885,000 in development fees for Rezko and Davis.

Obama says he, himself, did a mere five hours of work for Rezko, but the law firm where Obama was a junior partner -did significant legal work for Rezko's company which, by 2002, was being sued by the city, state and a bunch of banks for defaulting on loans and doing a downright awful job of providing decent housing. Taxpayers and lenders have lost up to $100 million while Rezko's firm made about $7 million.

Rezko repaid the favour. In June 2005, Obama and Rezko's wife purchased adjoining parcels in Kenwood. The state's junior senator paid $1.65 million for a Georgian revival mansion, while Rezko paid $625,000 for the adjacent, undeveloped lot. Both closed on their properties on the same day. Six months later, ostensibly aiming to increase the size of his sideyard, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for a strip of his land, a price that was considerably less than the going market price. Further according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama's purchase of the land from Rezko may have created an increased value to Obama's property beyond the actual purchase price by making the adjacent Rezko property difficult to develop.

As a community organizer, then as a state senator, how did Barack Obama not know of buildings in his own district that were in such dilapidated state? Obama also accepted donations from Rezko while his urban housing empire was collapsing. As a community organizer Obama had to know what this meant for his district to have such slum areas go untended by a negligent landlord. Was he ignorant, careless, or looking the other way? Or is there another explanation?

[situationcritical]

Ah, so here it is. Buried 3/4 down the 2nd page of Huffpo.

However, Obama Rezko was blaring on 14 giant TV screens for 2 and a half hours at my gym today.

[Freddy334]

Obama is crook and Rezko is connected to Syria, an Iraqi billionaire connected to Saddam and other Middle Eastern muslims. My guess is Obama is getting money from Hamas and Hezboolah. If Obama gets the nomination - he will never carry Florida. Jews in FL, NY, CT and NJ will vote for McCain. Obama's other supporters are anti-semites and bogits like Jesse "hymie town" Jackson and Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. I would vote for an decent African-American but not a 40% Arab/10% Afrrican/50% white huckster connected to shadowy Middle Eastern slime.

[situationcritical]

Oh please.

[rollingdivision]

Assuming Obama isn't directly involved in the Chicago Democratic machine dirt, Obama should make all records available, answer all questions and clear the air on these issues now. The longer he avoids dealing with what his involvement was or wasn't and telling what he knows the worse the rumors and innuendo. Obama should kill it now.

[Susan1968]

Older Huffpo article:

The name of Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama is likely to brush up against the impending federal corruption trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko as the result of a judge's ruling Monday.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve, who is presiding over Rezko's trial, told prosecutors they could introduce evidence to support allegations that Rezko used straw men to make political contributions on his behalf.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/26/obama-likely-to-come-up-i_n_88498.html

Clearly this goes beyond the BONEHEADED real estate deal.

All you need to know about Obama & Rezko's 17 year friendship:

http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/

[hank48188]

I can't believe more comments haven't been posted about this story, Where are all the OBAMABOTS today? They should be here defending Obama instead of being M.I.A. That would just blow Obama out of the water if he gets called to the witness stand in this trial, everyone would see he's just the normal crooked Chicago style Democrat

[repubstheirownworstenemy]

We're giving it the attention it deserves.

Zero. The trial has nothing to do with Obama, though nothing is beneath you shameless partisan hacks lying on behalf of your candidate.

Besides, you conspiracy theorists are in ample supply today.

[hank48188]

Rezko has a 17 year relationship with Rezko, go read the story about Rezko helping Obama buy his house

[samandally]

Nice try, Obama is as thick as thieves with the man!

[Fasteddie1515]

The Clinton's have thrown a brick and hid their dirty hands. The Rezko trial is not about Senator Obama. But this up coming trial that will take us everywhere we've already been. You would think that this could not have happened from learned mistakes. The Republicans are waiting for the Clinton's

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56868

[Marrob]

Rezko will bring Obama down!!!

[meileen]

Let's cross our fingers that does not occur after it is too late to have the correct candidate be the nominee. 'Cos we'll end up with McCain.

[Freddy334]

Better vote for Hillary because McCain will beat Rezko/Obama like a drum every day til November.

[kat7]

This Obama-Rezko Housing scandal is very similar to Cunningham Bribery Scandals in California.

Here are some details and URL about this case:


Defense Contractor Mitchell Wade, in a sweetheart deal, secretly bought Duke and Nancy Cunningham’s Del Mar Heights house November 20, 2003 for $1,675,000. They hid the sale through a shell corporation of Wade’s, “1523 New Hampshire Avenue LLC.” A month later, Wade put it on the market, but it didn’t sell until the price was reduced to market value, eight months later. Wade sold Cunningham’s old home for $975,000. Since home values haven’t gone down recently in San Diego, it seems Wade gave Cunningham $700,000 (not a campaign contribution, but apparently an illegal gift). Wade never moved in there, as he and his company, MZM Inc. are in the Washington, D. C. area and don’t do business in San Diego. Cunningham bought his Rancho Santa Fe mansion for $2.55 million. Shortly later, Cunningham had Brent Wilkes pay his second mortgage on the Rancho Santa Fe Mansion and Wade pay the first mortgage. In exchange, it appears Cunningham helped Wade get contracts for his MZM Inc. ($41 million in fiscal 2003, $65 million in 2004) to triple MZM’s profits in 2004. Cunningham says the contracts are “very, very classified” stuff, so he can’t talk about it. Wilkes gained $6 million in defense contracts for unwanted hardware worth $1.5 million In short, these were war profiteering bribes.

dukecunningham.orgg]

War Hero Cunnigham (100 times better pilot than John McCain) is still in jail serving his time.

[repubstheirownworstenemy]

How about posting the "similarities".

I anxiously await your detailed response.

[Freddy334]

Yeah Cunningham was a real hero but he got greedy and was bought for a bunch of junk. A real tragedy. The real estate part of Cunningham conviction is a lot like Obama.

[outnow]

Obama said in one of the debates that he hardly knows the guy (Rezko). Obama stated that he had done a few hours of legal work for him. It is rumored that there was a long and ongoing relationship between the two. Obama needs to come clean, or rather needed to come clean since the cat was out of the bag - assuming that there is any cat in there, of course.

The timing of the trial is very interesting. Better had opening statements been underway, as in the in the Scooter Lewis Libby trial, where witnesses would have been disclosed and some preview of the expected testimony gi8ven. It seems that if there is some dirt, and Obama clinches the nomination, the Democrats are stuck with a flawed candidate. Therefore, Hillary is hanging in there hoping

[hank48188]

I couldn't believe Wolf Blitzer gave Obama a pass on his less than truthful response to the TONY REZKO question. Obama has a 17 year relationship with Rezko and the House deal they both were involved with is CORRUPTION

[repubstheirownworstenemy]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14619.html

Try processing facts before spewing, you hack. The guy bought a strip of land ford $104,500 to expand his frickin' yard. Big conspiracy, that.

[Lalo]

So we have a Presidential nominee who can be called as a witness by Rezko DEFENSE, but today's headline is "Obama calls Clinton Desperate".

Wow. Garbabe Post is reaching new heights, daily.

[Fasteddie1515]

The Clinton's are beyond desperate they have a case of their own coming up later in the year. The republicans are hoping and waiting for them.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56868