There is more bad news for Barack Obama’s endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, Alexi Giannoulias: the failed bank where he worked as an executive loaned millions of dollars to an Iraqi arms dealer and convicted felon Tony Rezko. Broadway Bank, which Giannoulias’ family started, approved a $22.75 million loan to Riverside District Development LLC. The principals of that noble-sounding institution are Tony Rezko – who famously sold the president a plot of land adjacent to the Obamas’ Chicago home – and Nahdmi Auchi. In December 1980, Auchi, a native Iraqi, brokered an arms deal between the Italian government and Saddam Hussein that netted the Iraqi Navy four frigates.
Just last week, Barack Obama personally held a fundraiser for Giannoulias, vouching for the young man’s integrity:
Alexi is my friend. I know his character. I know how much he loves this country. I know how committed he is to public service for all the right reasons…
You can trust him. You can count on him.
Obama has heavily invested in electing Giannoulias to the Senate seat that he vacated, which is at the heart of the Rod Blogojevich scandal. Joe Biden, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, David Axelrod, and Desiree Rogers have all stumped for Alexi (and, of course, Obama is a frenetic fundraiser).
His reassurances of Giannoulias’ goodwill ring hollow upon examining the record. In the 1990s, Auchi was a shareholder in what became the BNP Paribas bank. Saddam Hussein used that bank to funnel money from the Oil-for-Food scam.
…But not from Broadway Bank. A campaign aide claims Alexi was on a leave of absence when the loan was approved in March 2006. However, the same month he told the press, “I’m senior loan officer and vice president, so I oversee a $600 million loan department.” The aide now claims he misspoke.
What no one disputes is that Alexi gave thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Obama, and as a bank executive, loaned $27 million to mobsters Michael “Jaws” Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos. The government shut down Broadway Bank in April, which will cost taxpayers $390 million.
Giannoulias dismisses his Auchi ties as “a Washington, D.C., guilt by association game” – charging Republican Mark Kirk of associating Giannoulias with his own bank.
Apparently, the difference between Barack Obama and Alexi Giannnoulias is that Obama only pals around with American terrorists.
The corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is already shaping up to be a political circus, promising to lay bare the underbelly of Chicago politics.
But while the stakes are clear for Blagojevich — he could be the fourth Illinois governor in 40 years to retire to a federal prison — some of the most powerful Washington insiders are braced for potential political damage from the trial, which begins Thursday.
President Barack Obama, White House aides Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) all have at least some interest in the outcome, according to documents produced by prosecutors, defense lawyers and the White House counsel. Blagojevich has been charged with engaging in state-level kickback schemes, but Washington is much more focused on allegations he tried to sell Obama’s old Senate seat.
None of these Washington insiders have been accused of wrongdoing. But their names are sure to come up in testimony.
“It’s like a soap opera,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). “Everyone will be watching it.”
Will President Obama have to testify under oath about the appointment of his Senate successor?
Drudge carries two big stories this afternoon on the trial of former Governor Blagojevich.
Blagojevich has subpoenaed the President to take his testimony on the events in question.
Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to charges that accuse him of scheming to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by Obama’s election as president.
The motion filed Thursday says Obama was interviewed for two hours by prosecutors and FBI agents regarding the Blagojevich case, and the defense filed a motion asking for all transcripts, notes and reports from that interview. But the defense never received the documents, the motion said.
The motion also claims that prosecutors say Blagojevich met a labor union official whom he believed to be in contact with President Obama, and told the official he would appoint a certain candidate to the vacant Senate seat. In exchange, Blagojevich expected to be named secretary of Health and Human Services, the motion says prosecutors claim.
It would be most unusual for the request for a subpoena to succeed, but as you can see from the second story, it is hard to believe the president’s claim that neither he nor his aides were involved in the search for a successor for his Senate seat.
The defense team for deposed Gov. Rod Blagojevich has moved to subpoena President Barack Obama to testify at Blagojevich’s corruption trial.
Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to charges that accuse him of scheming to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by Obama’s election as president.
The motion filed Thursday says Obama was interviewed for two hours by prosecutors and FBI agents regarding the Blagojevich case, and the defense filed a motion asking for all transcripts, notes and reports from that interview. But the defense never received the documents, the motion said.
The motion also claims that prosecutors say Blagojevich met a labor union official whom he believed to be in contact with President Obama, and told the official he would appoint a certain candidate to the vacant Senate seat. In exchange, Blagojevich expected to be named secretary of Health and Human Services, the motion says prosecutors claim.
One of Rod Blagojevich’s attorneys said Wednesday it was possible the defense could call President Obama to take the witness stand if the corruption charges against the former governor go to trial, but added that it wasn’t clear that doing so would be necessary.
Defense attorney Samuel E. Adam said following a hearing in the case that it would be "an awesome experience in any career" to question Obama, who is not accused of any wrongdoing but did answer questions from federal investigators.
Blagojevich is charged with scheming to sell or trade Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat, campaign fundraising abuses and other offenses. He has denied wrongdoing.
Blagojevich attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel to give them an early look at the government’s evidence, including records of interviews with Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and two labor backers of Obama, Thomas Balanoff and Andy Stern.
Zagel indicated he might rule on the request Jan. 27
Barack Obama is manipulating the media to control the news
Carol Marin is political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as political editor for Chicago’s NBC 5 News, as well as interviewer/contributor to WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” program.
As such, she may be one of this nation’s most Obama-knowledgeable of all in our media.
As a former CBS news correspondent, she reported for “60 Minutes.”
All of which makes it beyond belief that almost all of this nation’s media – with the exception of the Media Research Center – failed to report what this Obama news authority wrote in the Sun Times on Sunday, Jan. 4 of this year:
“As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against Blagojevich, we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to keep a careful distance.
Obama with two subpoena targets, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett
Sweeping federal subpoenas of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration include requests for records involving David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, senior advisers to President Barack Obama.
Among 43 subpoenas released by the Blagojevich administration Friday, one from Dec. 8 seeks notes, calendars, correspondence and any other data that relate to Axelrod, Jarrett and 32 other people and organizations.
That was the day before the FBI arrested Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat, on charges that he tried to trade his appointment to replace Obama in the Senate for campaign contributions. Wiretapped conversations show Blagojevich thought Jarrett was interested in the seat and he wanted campaign money or a high-paying job in return, according to a sworn statement.
Sen Kennedy, Gov. "Hot Rod" Blagojevich, and Barack Obama
Barack Obama jogged only slightly ahead of Rod Blagojevich across the news landscape of the past month, the glistening horizon of a new Camelot ahead, perhaps, but the jagged outline of the clouted city not far behind.
Obama and Blago are more than the yin and yang of Illinois politics. They represent, a la Jerry Seinfeld, the ultimate Bizarro plotline.
Bizarro is the alter ego of Superman, a concept the Seinfeld crew borrowed from DC Comics and incorporated into a 1996 episode. If you never saw it, it goes like this: For every apathetic Jerry, nudgy George and raucous Kramer there is, in the Bizarro world, the polar opposite: an empathetic Jerry, an urbane George and a genteel Kramer.
Eric Holder with one of his corrupt clients Gov. Rod Blagojevich
During a Jan. 7 news conference on Capitol Hill, Maryland’s Democrat U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin declared:
“Eric Holder is an experienced and dedicated public servant who will restore trust and confidence in a Department of Justice that recently has strayed far from its role as a non-partisan protector of the rule of law and the civil rights of all Americans. I have no doubt that Mr. Holder will be an attorney general who will serve the American people and not just the White House. He will vigorously enforce the civil rights laws to protect all Americans from unlawful discrimination and help close our nation’s justice gap.”
And speaking of justice – as Sen. Cardin mentioned (along with other participants in this press conference, including the NAACP, the National Council of LaRaza, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the National Women’s Law Center), where was candidate Holder’s alleged devotion to the cause of justice in the case of Mr. Marc Rich?
I looked carefully at the press release issued by Sens. Cardin and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and those four organizations. I could find no mention at all of the Eric Holder outrage in the case of Marc Rich.
Bill Richardson is one of many "friends of Barack" in trouble
One reason the Obama transition team pushed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson overboard was concern that other close associates of Obama might be drawn into the burgeoning “pay for play” scandal that is now enveloping not only Richardson, but also the administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, as well as other prominent Democrats.
“The biggest concern is [Valerie] Jarrett and anyone associated with the public housing industry in Chicago,” says an Obama transition team adviser. “Some of Obama’s earliest and most influential fundraisers came from the low-income housing industry.”
In fact, according to federal law enforcement sources, the company at the center of the “pay for play” scandal, CDR Financial, was about to announce the opening of a new office in Illinois. “They were expecting to make some money there, just how and how much isn’t clear yet, but it’s something that is being looked at.”
Blagojevich’s trial will be a political circus
What was Obama’s involvement?
Will Obama be forced to testify under oath?
Obama with his good buddy Blagojevich
