Illinois governor takes center stage at Rezko trial
Bob Secter and Jeff Coen, Chicago Tribune
Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: News
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With an overflow crowd on hand for the politically charged trial, the first government witnesses painted a portrait of Rezko as someone with extraordinary access to the governor and his administration, attending strategy sessions and sitting in on job interviews for key positions.
Testimony from an FBI analyst pointed to a reason behind Rezko's influence: money. Special Agent Charles Willenborg said that internal Blagojevich campaign documents credited Rezko with raising more than $1.4 million for the governor between June 2001 and August 2004.
That is nearly three times what Rezko has publicly acknowledged raising for Blagojevich. In a 2005 interview with the Chicago Tribune, he put the number at about $500,000.
The Rezko case is fraught with political peril not only for Blagojevich but also for Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama, another friend of Rezko. Obama has little connection to the criminal case against Rezko. But the link between the two has fanned national interest in a trial that already was receiving outsized attention in Chicago.
Spectators and press filled not only the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve but also a second courtroom set up to have the proceedings piped in on closed-circuit television.
In opening statements Thursday, lawyers for the government and Rezko gave starkly different views of the developer who is charged with misusing his ties to Blagojevich in schemes aimed at illegally siphoning millions of dollars from two state boards.
To prosecutors, Rezko was a cold and calculating schemer who wanted to steal from the hard-earned pension savings of thousands of Illinois teachers. But Rezko's lawyers said he was a victim, of the government's main witness, Stuart Levine, who was described by the defense as a drug-abusing name dropper and influence peddler.
Levine was a member of two state panels at the heart of the government's case, reappointed to both in 2003 by Blagojevich after input from Rezko. One board was responsible for investing $30 billion in teacher pension assets; the other had the power to approve hospital expansion projects throughout the state.
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