186 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographyevery detail of his relationship with Rezko. Rezko stands accused of funneling state business to
companies that lined his pockets and made campaign contributions to Gov. Blagojevich. Rezko
allegedly directed $10,000 to Obama’s 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate. For months, Sun-
Times investigative reporters have had a standing request to meet with Obama, face to face, to
get answers to questions such as these: How many fund-raisers did Rezko throw for Obama?
Obama is donating $150,000 to charity that Rezko brought into the campaign. But how much in
all did Rezko raise? Did Rezko find jobs for Obama backers in the Blagojevich administration
or elsewhere? Why did Obama only recently admit — after Bloomberg News broke the story —
that Rezko had toured his South Side mansion with him in 2004 before he bought it? Dribs and
drabs of people’s lives have a most unfortunate way of coming out in trials.’ (Chicago Sun-
Times, “Sen. Obama, time to call us about Rezko: (312) 321-2417,” March 4, 2008)FITZGERALD DELIBERATELY SHIELDED OBAMA IN THE REZKO TRIAL
US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose status as a high-level enforcer for the ruling class had
been established during the Scooter Libby prosecution, elected not to bring Obama’s name into the
Rezko trial at the numerous points where mentioning Obama would have been pertinent. Even in
the original indictment against Rezko, Fitzgerald’s office had bent over backwards to avoid
negative publicity for Obama: ‘The list of names in the indictment includes about eight persons
referred to as “Co-Schemers,” and reads like a “who’s who list” of major campaign donors to
Obama, Blagojevich, Daley and other powerful Illinois politicians. Blagojevich is referred to as
“Public Official A,” Obama is referred to as a “political candidate,” and there is a list of
“Individuals” from “Individual A” all the way up to “Individual HH.”’ (Evelyn Pringle,
opednews.com) The same tender regard for Obama’s reputation continued through the entire Rezko
trial: ‘Newly unsealed documents show that prosecutors sought to call witnesses to testify about
Rezko’s ties to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. The Illinois senator was
the recipient of “straw” campaign contributions made by others on behalf of Rezko — money that
Obama has since given to charities, but only after he got caught. The documents indicate that
prosecutors considered offering witnesses to explore why Rezko used others to contribute to Obama
and also to Blagojevich, and U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve ruled that they could. But they did
not end up offering any such testimony during the trial. “Witnesses will testify that Rezko was a
long-standing supporter and fund-raiser of Barack Obama,” prosecutors wrote.^74 This deliberate
decision to spare Obama for now, while his chief godfather and donor was hustled off to the federal
penitentiary, supports the Truman-Pendergast hypothesis of how the entire Rezko and Operation
Board Games verdicts are likely to be used in the future to ensure that Obama remains under strict
financier control.
OBAMA: “THIS ISN’T THE TONY REZKO I KNEW”
Rezko was then convicted just after the last primary elections were held:
One-time Barack Obama political fundraiser Tony Rezko has been convicted in federal court in
Chicago of corruption charges in a kickback scheme involving the Illinois state government. Rezko
was convicted of 12 counts of mail and wire fraud, two counts of corrupt solicitation and two counts
of money laundering. Rezko allegedly schemed to corrupt two state boards and solicited
contributions for the campaign of Governor Rod Blagojevich from companies seeking state
business. He was acquitted of one count of attempted extortion, four counts of corrupt solicitation
and three counts of fraud. (Yahoo Wires, June 4, 2008)