Obama has a dilemma named Jesse Jackson Jr.
Hugo Floriani, Investigative Reporter
Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s political career is circling the drain, as the thin veneer of his credibility as a lawmaker continues to erode.
The former Co-Chair of the Obama Presidential Campaign in 2008 became entangled in the saga of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s effort to sell the vacated U.S. Senate seat of Obama.
Then, suddenly, he disappeared from the national stage to undergo medical treatment for a mental disorder. (Just a coincidence, of course.)
Now, it’s been reported in the Sun Times that J.J., Jr. is being investigated by the feds for “suspicious activity in the South Shore congressman’s finances related to his House seat and the possibility of inappropriate expenditures”.
The federal “probe” was reportedly active before J.J. Jr. vanished and sought medical treatment.
We’ve all seen these “investigations” before, haven’t we?
(Raise your hand if you think Eric Holder’s Department of Selective Justice would ever indict J.J., Jr.)
So we know where these “investigations” typically go – down the bottomless rabbit hole.
(And we know where Congressional investigations go, too; e.g. Cong. Charlie Rangel.)
Nevertheless, at Illinois PaytoPlay we’ll watch what happens.
Developing…
As Obama’s cover story comes down, the curtain goes up on the USAO’s cover-up of J.J., Jr.’s role in the Blago story
Hugo Floriani, Investigative Reporter, Illinois PaytoPlay
Previous Illinois PaytoPlay (IP2P) articles have proposed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO), once led by former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, timed the arrest of former Governor Rod “Blago” Blagojevich in order to prevent persons representing Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. from paying a bribe to Blago in exchange for Blago appointing J.J., Jr. as the new U.S. Senator for the seat vacated by recently-elected President Barack Obama.
A recent article in World Net Daily, written by best-selling author Jerome Corsi entitled “Jesse Jackson, Wright 'arranged' Obama marriage,” adds credibility to what IP2P has alleged; namely,that the timing of Blago’s arrest was not motivated by a desire to stop a “crime spree,” but was meant to save J.J., Jr., from being complicit in the crime associated with purchasing a Senate seat.
The primary assertion of Corsi’s article is this:
“As a young single woman, Michelle Robinson was a fixture in the home of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who along with Rev. Jeremiah Wright ‘arranged’ her marriage to Barack Obama, according to sources in Chicago who know the couple.
‘If you want to understand Michelle Obama, you’ve got to go back to Jesse Jackson, a woman called “Robyn” for this article told WND.
Robyn, who spent several years working for Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, explained to a WND investigator in Chicago that Michelle Obama ‘just about grew up in Jesse Jackson’s home.’
‘Jesse should have charged her rent and board for the amount of time she spent in his home instead of her own,’ she said.”
This article is the second in a series. In the first installment, Corsi claimed that Obama was part of an “underground subculture in the black community known as Down Low, comprised largely of men who secretly engage in homosexual activity while living ‘straight’ lives in public.” And, that Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church was a facilitation center for this underground subculture.
Putting that assertion aside, the close relationship between Michelle Robinson and the Jackson family adds weight to IP2P’s suggestion that the newly elected President would have taken all necessary steps to protect J.J., Jr., who was not only the Co-Chair of his Presidential Campaign Committee, but also a member of a family with a long and close personal relationship with Michelle Obama.
Then there’s also the possibility that J.J., Jr. would be knowledgeable of Barack Obama’s alleged involvement in the “Down Low” community.
Nadhmi Auchi’s London law firm targets American Thinker website
Hugo Floriani, Investigative Reporter
Illinois PaytoPlay has learned that Nadhmi Auchi’s London-based law firm, Carter-Ruck, recently demanded that the American Thinker website remove the piece below that refers to their client and his association with Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
Until US law changed in 2010, making the US press no longer subject to British libel law, Carter-Ruck was able to successfully intimidate US websites into compliance with its demands.
AT pulled the piece briefly while it verified the accuracy of the information concerning Auchi, and then reposted the original, unchanged.
Meanwhile, the two big Chicago daily papers continue to ignore the Auchi-Rezko-Obama connections.
Here is the American Thinker piece in its entirety:
-
September 20, 2012
Obama's Chicago Arab-American network comes into focus
Lee Cary
The linkage between Illinois and U.S. Senator Obama's network of Arab-American supporters in Chicago is cracking open.
On September 19, 2012, the Washington Examiner, as part of a series entitled "The Obama You Don't Know," reports that,
"President Obama's controversial relationships with radical figures like Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi have been well-publicized in recent years...
Less well-known is a cluster of Chicago businessmen who formed an Arab-American network at the heart of Obama's political apparatus. Ray Hanania, a Chicago-based Arab-American journalist and activist, described the network in a 2007 interview with Chicago magazine as "a small cluster of activists" in the business community who were politically involved.
Chief among them was Obama mentor Tony Rezko. Born in Aleppo, Syria, home of strongman Bashar al-Assad, Rezko migrated to the U.S. in the late 1970s andbuilt a political and financial empire in Chicago and Springfield, the Illinois capital."
The Washington Examiner article also mentions Rezko's close association with "Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-British businessman and former Iraqi Baathist who was on a terror watch list and thus barred from entering the United States."
John A. Shaw, former senior official of US Defense, State, and Commerce departments, who has called Nadhmi Auchi "Rezko's bag man in Chicago," was responsible for Auchi being put on the terrorist watch list. His description of Auchi can be read here.
Shaw had this to say about the Washington Examiner piece:
"This is interesting, and gives a sense of how wide the Arab net was cast over the Chicago scene. Auchi was the money man for the whole network. His visa was revoked, as you know, not because he was a Baathist once upon a time and was listed as a terrorist; it was specifically because of our report in May, 2004. That prevented his planned return to Chicago in the fall to build on the Rezko land deal to become the Olympic village and God knows what other plans. His feting of Jesse Jackson in London shows that he has continuing involvement in Chicago and expects his visa to be restored by Obama when he pardons Rezko and Blago in January. The game is not over; it has only begun...(Would be interesting to look at Auchi investments in the Detroit area and his role in the Arab spy ring operating out of Detroit).
"Now that we know Auchi was involved with Rezko in a cross section of Iraqi contract schemes, with 22 trips to Damascus and Baghdad between 2003 and 2005, the dimensions of what was in prospect in Chicago becomes clearer. The focus on health and medical schemes and scams in Chicago was paralleled in Iraq, with Auchi getting the British-Iraqi Hospital. The ministry of Health was the fountainhead of corruption for all of Iraq reconstruction, and the ties in Chicago and Illinois were calculated to be a similar bonanza.
"Valerie Jarrett hired Michelle Obama as part of her hospital management company at a salary of over $300,000, and Jarrett was a key player in the quest for the 2016 Olympics. It was peculiar that Obama did not pull out all the stops when he and Michelle went to Copenhagen to press the International Olympic Committee. I would bet that with Rezko convicted and Blago on the way, and the revelations about Auchi involvement and support in Chicago, the bid had become problematic and a real danger. He may have passed the word to the committee that his trip was only pro forma. I wouldn't be surprised."
The Chicago media ignored, or only made superficial inquiries into, Obama's association with persons of interest in the Arab-American community, like Rezko and Auchi.
Meanwhile, the former U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald, used delayed sentencing tactics to keep those who could shed light on Obama's connections with Rezko and Auchi quiet.
“Golden,” the whitewashing of a Department of Justice crime spree
Ernie Souchak, Editor-in-Chief, Illinois PayToPlay & Hugo Floriani, Investigative Reporter
Chicago Tribune reporters Jeff Coen and John Chase wrote a 486-pages book that packs tedious and mundane details about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s life, from birth to prison, around one key chapter that documents the role of former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in leaking information about his investigation of the ex-governor known nationwide as “Blago”.
The whitewash begins on the second page of the foreword entitled “Authors’ Note”: “We quote heavily from the recordings that federal agents made on phones used by the governor and others. All of those quotes come from transcripts of those phone conversations or the recordings themselves. We are grateful to those who provided case material that was outside of the public record.” (For ease of reading, we will italicize all quotations from the book.)
Those persons “who provided case material that was outside of the public record” remain unidentified throughout the book. But it soon becomes clear where they worked.
In an article written by Ernie Souchak posted on this website last September 14, we noted how the judge’s protective order, covering the transcripts of Blago’s phone conversations, stipulated that nothing prohibited Blago and his lawyers from telling his version of those recorded conversations. Blago and his attorneys were, though, ordered not to disseminate the transcripts that the feds gave them. Only the feds had permission to do that.
So, apparently, Coen/Chase secured those transcripts and recordings mentioned in the “Authors’ Note” from the feds. Here’s a question: Why was the information given to them?
Hold that thought.
The problem for the book’s core narrative – the arrest, trial and conviction of Blago – unfolds in Chapter 14 (pp. 257-295) entitled “I’ve got this thing…”
Background
On October 16, 2011, we concluded a ten-article series concerning U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, which first posted here in on September 19, 2011, with this summary:
“So, what are the facts and circumstances that we know that collectively tend to prove, or sustain by their consistency…the hypothesis that Patrick Fitzgerald is a politically-driven, not jurisprudence-driven, prosecutor whose image as an intrepid, unbiased crime fighter is a media-created fabrication?
Here are a few headlines from Parts 1-9:
Fitzgerald acknowledged that someone leaked information to the Chicago Tribune, via a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, while the reporter, John Chase, sat mute in the front row of the news conference where the arrest of Blago was described as an effort to stop a crime spree. (Chase has told a source known to this writer that he would not identify who leaked him the information on First Amendment grounds.)
In fact, (1) Blago’s crime spree had, with Fitzgerald’s knowledge, been going on for several years. (2) Chase has not been called to account for tipping off Blago that his conversations were being recorded by the feds. (3) Eric Holder’s Department of Selective Justice has taken no steps – like that taken by Fitzgerald when he jailed Judith Miller of the New York Times in the Valerie Plame Case – to force Chase to reveal the source of the leak. And, (4) Fitz’s demeanor in discussing the leak in a press conference can be accurately described as disinterested.
The urgency to arrest Blago was manufactured out of whole cloth. The leak had to originate out of the DoJ. And, the closest outlet for the DoJ to the Chicago Tribune is Fitzgerald’s office. You connect the dots.
In retrospect, we know now that Richard Armitage was the confessed leaker in the Valerie Plame Case. We also know that Fitzgerald knew of Armitage’s confession before undertaking a long and costly investigation that convicted a key staff member of Vice President Cheney of a crime not connected to the Plame leak. And, that this media event, upon which the foundation of the Untouchable myth was built by the main stream media, was politically-driven.
The Plame “investigation” boiled down to a surrogate WWF-like wrestling match between two Big Beltway Boys: Armitage representing Powell – Libby for Cheney. With Fitzgerald as the biased referee. And, it will be so chronicled by unbiased historians in the future.
The arrest of Blago was timed, not to stop a crime spree, or the selling of a Senate seat – since the latter notion is built on the myth that, once Blago got paid for appointing someone, the act was immediate and irrevocable. The arrest was timed to save Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr., from criminal prosecution for bribing a governor in order to receive a Senate appointment. Connect the dots. It was about saving J.J., Junior.”
Chapter 14 – The Whitewash
The narrative here is significant, not just for what it reveals, but more for what it conceals.
The authors do not reveal the source for the information that Chase telephonically conveyed to Blago’s Spokesman, Lucio Guerrero, at approximately 10:30 p.m., Friday, December 4, 2008, namely, that the feds were listening in on Blago’s phone conversations.
Consequently, this question remains unanswered: Who leaked the information that Blago’s phone conversations were being wiretapped by the feds to the Tribune and Chase? Plus, why was that revelation leaked to the paper?
Then, why did Fitzgerald show no interest in tracking down the leaker?
We’re no closer today to answers to those questions after the 486 pages of whitewash.
Now, for the information in Chapter 14 that substantiates our October 2011 summary above:
Page 264: “Again, prosecutors noted the gravity of what Blagojevich had said. They were aware of the Balanoff meeting but had not recorded it.” (Tom Balanoff is president of the Service Employees International Union, Illinois Council, and the Vice President of its International Executive Board.)
How did the Coen/Chase know this information unless someone in the U.S. Attorney’s office gave them a blow-by-blow description of the investigation? Of course that’s what happened. The authors were scripted by the feds.
Page 267: “At the FBI’s listening room, there continued to be a mixture of thrilled disbelief and newfound resolve at what was being caught on the recordings. Agents believed they were capturing the sitting governor in incriminating conversations, and they played the calls for supervisors.
At one point, the FBI’s national director, Robert Mueller, was in town for a Chicago event. Having heard about the success of the Blagojevich operation, Mueller wanted to hear some of the recordings for himself. He stopped at the FBI’s Chicago headquarters on Roosevelt Road on the West Side near Ogden Avenue and took a seat in Rob Grant’s office. Agents had put together a disc of some of their favorite snippets for Mueller to hear.
Who was the guy dropping the F-Bombs? Mueller asked.
Well, that was the governor of Illinois, agents explained.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mueller said, shaking his head, clearly pleased with how investigators were doing.”
This sounds like the testimony of an eyewitness to the event, given all the illustrative details. That eyewitness would be an employee of the FBI, or, someone from Fitzgerald’s office involved in the USAO’s investigation of Blago. This information clearly didn’t come from an audio tape or transcript of one of Blago’s intercepted calls, or from the building’s janitor.
It comes from a source intimately involved in the investigation.
Page 281: This portion of Chapter 14 explains the nature of the alleged urgency that caused the USAO to arrest Blago to, as Fitzgerald later claimed, stop an on-going crime spree.
“Fitzgerald had grown concerned that they had a sitting governor who had yet to make an appointment after working for weeks to see what he could get for himself in a deal for the Senate seat. They could let things go a little further, but it was starting to get risky that Blagojevichwould actually make a choice. Schar [Reid Schar, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, NDIL] said it would be derelict of those in the room to allow Blagojevich to make a decision. Everyone in the meeting believed the process had been corrupted, no matter how Blagojevich finally acted. To do something before he made a pick and out the investigation would at least make that corruption known, and the political could react to any pick by the governor.
In the end, there was agreement. Very soon, they would act, and likely on the morning of December 9, a Tuesday, the day before Blagojevich’s birthday and after a possible meeting the governor had been talking about with Jesse Jackson, Jr.”
What does “at least make that corruption known” mean? The USAO had been investigating Blago for years, and had compiled a substantial amount of evidence of corruption. At least, the goal should have been to arrest Blago when he accepted a bribe, and, also, arrest whoever paidthe bribe.
The real “risk” in letting Blago close a deal with the briber(s) negotiating with him on behalf of Jesse Jackson, Jr., was that they, too, would be implicated in a crime along with Blago. Whatever happened to the notion of intent to commit a crime? Blago went to jail – the briber(s) skated. That was the goal.
Pages 286-288: “’Jackson was the ‘uber African American,’ Blagojevich reminded Harris. He would consider what it would mean in black politics and how it would strengthen him, Blagojevich said, and don’t forget, third parties had offered him $1.5 million in fund-raising help.” (p. 286)
“’There’s tangible, concrete, tangible stuff from [Jackson’s] supporters,’ Blagojevich said, as Yang [Fred Yang, a pollster hired by Blagojevich] pressed him for more detail. ‘Well like, you know. You know what I’m talking about,’ the governor finally told him. ‘Specific amounts and everything.’” (p. 287)
“When prosecutors heard Blagojevich make the ‘tangible’ remark, they believed the Jackson proposal was in fact the way the governor was going to go.” (p. 288)
So, according to Coen/Chase, the feds believed that Blago was about to do a deal that would yield him $1.5 million for appointing Jesse Jackson, Jr. as a U.S. Senator from Illinois. That means that Blago was arrested to stop the commission of a specific crime, rather than to stop a crime spree.
If the USAO would have waited, both the bribee and the briber would have been caught and prosecuted. But the trap was sprung prematurely – for a reason.
Robert Blagojevich had a meeting scheduled with Jackson's money man Raghuveer Nayak on Friday, December 5. After learning from Chase, on the evening of December 4, that his conversations were being intercepted by the feds, Blago instructed his brother Robert to cancel that meeting.
The Duck Rule
If it looks like a duck; waddles like a duck; and quacks like a duck – face it, it’s a duck.
As we wrote back in October 2011: “The arrest was timed to save Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr. from criminal prosecution for bribing a governor in order to receive a Senate appointment. Connect the dots. It was about saving J.J., Junior.”
Remember that Jackson was the ’08 Co-chair of Obama’s Presidential Campaign Committee.
Conclusion
The book entitled Golden, written by two Chicago Tribune reporters who were granted special access to information coming from inside the investigation, is a 486-page apologia in defense of an improbable explanation behind the timing of the arrest of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
It is a duck.
Was there a quid pro quo deal here? Did the USAO inside-leaker(s) say, “Guys, we’ll give you exclusive access to all this information, and in exchange you tell the story the way we want it told. We gotta deal?”
Don’t forget that Roland Burris, the man Blago appointed to the U.S. Senate, was the 60th vote in favor of ObamaCare. Had Blago, and those bribing him, both been arrested after the money was exchanged, would there have even been a second Senator from Illinois in the U.S. Senate when the ObamaCare vote was taken?
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald gives the United States of America it’s first Tin-Pot Dictator “Barack Hussein Obama”
Ernie Souchak, Editor-in-Chief, Illinois PayToPlay
The communications posted below are just one example of how Patrick Fitzgerald and the Chicago Tribune worked together to insure that Barack Hussein Obama, aka "The Chosen One" would win the 2008 Presidential election. Illinois PayToPlay will have more on this soon.
All questions and or information related to this criminal activity should be directed to :
Congressman Darrell Issa [email protected]
Dale Neugebauer [email protected]
Chief-of-Staff
Washington, DC (202) 225-3906
California (760) 599-5000
From: (redacted)
To: "David Young" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, June 3, 2011 8:58:46 AM
Subject: Fwd: My Source (TIP)
Mr David Young
Please see that Senator Charles Grassley receives a copy of this.
(name redacted)
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: (redacted)
To: "Glenn Selig" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, June 2, 2011 9:17:04 PM
Subject: Fwd: My Source (TIP)
Glenn,
As we discussed, The fact that Rod Blagojevich is not making John Chase and the Chicago Tribune an issue in this case is very telling. What will be most interesting is. To what extent is Darrell Issa going to ignore what is happening before he is forced to step up ?
http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/blago/5231-session-1423-blagojevich-home.html
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: (redacted)
To:
Sent: Thursday, June 2, 2011 12:59:49 PM
Subject: Fwd: My Source (TIP)
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: (redacted)
To: "Glenn Selig" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 1, 2011 10:43:11 PM
Subject: My Source
Glenn,
I think this speaks for itself.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 8:07:17 AM
Subject: Fwd: Or maybe
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: "Rod Blagojevich" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Sheldon Sorosky" <[email protected]>, "Aaron Goldstein" <[email protected]>, "Randall Samborn" <[email protected]>, "Kimberly Nerheim" <[email protected]>, "ca49interndo" <[email protected]>, "Dale Neugebauer" <[email protected]>, "Justin Roth" <[email protected]>, "Gerould Kern" <[email protected]>, "John Kass" <[email protected]>, "Jeff Coen" <[email protected]>, "Donald Hayner" <[email protected]>, "Chris Fusco" <[email protected]>, "Tim Novak" <[email protected]>, "Dave McKinney" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 9:15:23 AM
Subject: Fwd: Or maybe
Ladies and gentleman,
My source at the Chicago Tribune (referred to below) is John Chase. The same John Chase that warned Rod Blagojevich that the feds had a wiretap on him.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Concerned citizen
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: "Chris Fusco" <[email protected]>, "Tim Novak" <[email protected]>, "Carol Marin" <[email protected]>, "Dave McKinney" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Donald Hayner" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 7:52:38 AM
Subject: Fwd: Or maybe
What about the folks at the Sun-Times ?
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: "Rod Blagojevich" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Sheldon Sorosky" <[email protected]>, "Aaron Goldstein" <[email protected]>, "Glenn Selig" <[email protected]>, "Dale Neugebauer" <[email protected]>, "Justin Roth" <[email protected]>, "ca49interndo" <[email protected]>, "Cheyenne steel" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 9:12:10 PM
Subject: Or maybe
Or maybe, no one wants the truth to get out ?
Does anyone want to know who in the Chicago Tribune organization informed me that the Tribune was sitting on the John Thomas (FBI mole) story to protect Barack Obama, at the behest of Patrick Fitzgerald ? Surely Rod Blagojevich and his lawyers will want to know or will they ? Why wouldn't they want to know ?
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: "Glenn Selig" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Sheldon Sorosky" <[email protected]>, "Aaron Goldstein" <[email protected]>, "Rod Blagojevich" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2011 8:42:04 PM
Subject: Maybe everyone is inept ?
Glenn
To date, not a single person that has received this string of emails has asked me the simple and obvious question, who is your source at the Chicago Tribune. Remember what we discussed.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Concerned citizen
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: "Glenn Selig" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 8:23:27 AM
Subject: Fwd: FBI director Fitzgerald ?
Glenn
I appreciate that you are talking to Rod Blagojevich about what we have discussed, however in the mean time, has Sheldon shared this email with you ?
xxxxxxx
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: "John Kass" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Chris Fusco" <[email protected]>, "Eric Zorn" <[email protected]>, "Gerould Kern" <[email protected]>, "Donald Hayner" <[email protected]>, "Dale Neugebauer" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 9:44:29 AM
Subject: Fwd: FBI director Fitzgerald ?
John
You continue to be an outspoken fan of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald despite the fact you have been given evidence that should concern you deeply.
Perhaps since you and the Chicago Tribune feel so strongly about the virtues of Patrick Fitzgerald you can ask him a few questions that need answering.
1 Who leaked sealed information about the wire tap on Rod Blagojevich to John Chase, and have they been charged for that crime ?
2 Who leaked the information to John Chase that John Wyma was cooperating with the U.S Attorneys office ?
3 Why are the John Thomas files sealed ?
4 Etc.,
5 Etc.,
6 Etc.,
Get answers to these and you will be on your way to recovery.
FBI director Patrick Fitzgerald ? Pay-to-Play on steroids, he should know. You should talk to John Chase about this, as you know I have !
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: "jskass" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 6:42:03 PM
Subject: Chicago Tribune - John Thomas
To whom it may concern
John Thomas was a mole for the FBI in the case in Illinois against Tony Rezko and others. The Chicago Tribune was aware of the fact and chose not to write a story about him at the behest of Patrick Fitzgerald (U.S Attorney Northern Dist IL). The Tribune eventually wrote a story about John Thomas, however the story they wrote was not accurate. My source at the Chicago Tribune claims that when Patrick Fiztgerald asked the Chicago Tribune to sit on the Thomas story, claiming it could put his life in danger, the Chicago Tribune refused. The Chicago Tribune told Mr Fitzgerald that they were going to run the story anyway. It was only when Patrick Fitzgerald told the Chicago Tribune that if they ran the story that it would affect the Presidential election did the Chicago Tribune agree not to run the story. My source at the Chicago Tribune confirmed this meant Obama. My source also informed me of other information that would be of interest to the people of Illinois that was not being reported in the Chicago Tribune.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 8:03:33 AM
Subject: FBI director Fitzgerald ?
I have known about this for a while, however I do find the timing of this interesting?
Could make for interesting confirmation hearings.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0317-20110317,0,5332476.column
chicagotribune.com
If Fitzgerald goes to Washington, will political cockroaches like Blagojevich multiply?
John Kass
March 17, 2011
advertisement
Rod Blagojevich awoke after a night of uneasy dreams to find that he had been transformed:
Not into just another Illinois political cockroach — one more former governor awaiting a federal criminal trial — but as a WLS-AM morning radio talk show host shamelessly sucking up to his potential jury pool.
So as WLS invited former Gov. Dead Meat to use the federally licensed airwaves to politic to the jury and claim his innocence, he dropped the name of famed writer Franz Kafka.
And his co-host, wife Patti, chimed in, saying those federal prosecutors in Chicago were really unfair.
"The whole thing, it's a story out of Kafka," said Dead Meat. "You know he wrote this novel 'The Trial,' which is just an unbelievable thing about how somebody can be falsely accused of things, and then they just drop a big thing on you, and create a firestorm and before you have a chance to catch your breath, you've been defined a certain way."
Dead Meat was referring Kafka's story of Josef K., a young bank official who is arrested by federal agents and tried, though neither he nor the reader ever learn the exact nature of the crime.
It's a crazy reference, because Dead Meat knows the charges against him — like trying to sell that "(bleeping) golden" U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama.
And both he and Patti know the names of all the prosecutors and FBI agents, including U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
"My point is, it's a selective prosecution," Patti told the audience.
And she mentioned the story of her husband's replacement, Gov. Patrick Quinn, and his appointment of former state Rep. Careen Gordon, a Democrat from Morris.
During her campaign, Gordon opposed a tax increase but lost anyway. Then in January, Quinn needed her vote to pass his 67 percent income tax hike. He offered her an $86,000-a-year job on the state prison review board. As a potentially interesting confirmation hearing neared, Gordon withdrew her name from consideration Wednesday.
Quinn and Gordon insisted there was no quid pro quo, but anyone who believed that is a chumbolone.
"Why is it OK for Quinn and Careen Gordon to act this way?" whined Patti. "But we're sitting in a situation where you're going to go to trial again for the second time, for something far less concrete, than what they actually did."
What Quinn did is contemptible, but at least Quinn didn't have his fingerprints all over Obama's Senate seat.
On Wednesday, Patti was less (bleeping) Lady Macbeth and more like a 5-year-old, wondering why she and Rod got caught when everybody else gets to do it.
The last time I'd heard her speak was on a TV reality show, "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!"
She'd just eaten a plateful of live jungle bugs, perhaps Costa Rican cockroaches, and she was using the tip of her tongue to work them out of her teeth, the way you work celery out of your molars, when she began blubbering about Rod's innocence.
It was difficult to watch back then, but she got through it, and enough potential jurors must have seen it, too, because Dead Meat was convicted on only one federal count — lying to the FBI.
The retrial is scheduled to start April 20, and Fitzgerald has his prosecution team streamlining the case.
And now Fitzgerald might be making a move, to Washington. He's on the short list to replace Robert Muller as director of the FBI.
Whether he gets the job or not is something else again. I think Fitzgerald would like the post. Friends of his have been talking about it for years. He's obviously qualified, and he has hunted crooked Democrats and crooked Republicans with equal gusto.
But would the Chicago Way White House — with mayoral brother Billy Daley as chief of staff to the president — want an uncontrollable Fitzgerald running the FBI for the next 10 years?
Who knows? Billy Daley is approving the short list being leaked out to the media, with Fitz's name on it.
"He's clearly the best qualified candidate for the FBI director's post in the country, bar none," said former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, no relation, who defied the Illinois Combine by installing the independent Fitzgerald in the job.
It made them so angry that Sen. Fitzgerald was run out of Illinois politics as a result.
"It would be Chicago's loss if Patrick Fitzgerald became director of the FBI," the former senator said. "All sorts of characters in Chicago would be delighted if Patrick were promoted out of town. As FBI director, his responsibilities would be focused on a broad spectrum and he wouldn't have time to focus just on Chicago."
Blagojevich was consistent throughout his shameless morning talk show rant.
He was the wronged man. His enemies wanted his hide. He was the one who fought on behalf of the people against all those schemers, liars and knaves.
But he got the Kafka reference wrong. It wasn't "The Trial" he should have been thinking of, but "The Metamorphosis," which Kafka would have begun this way, if he were covering the trial.
"As Rod Blagojevich awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. … His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."
If the best exterminator leaves town, what will happen to all those political cockroaches?
They'll multiply. As in the old days.
The Frawley-Cooley emails, more to come
Ernie Souchak, Editor-in-Chief, Illinois PayToPlay
Since last February 27, Illinois PayToPlay (IP2P) has posted five emails sent to Robert “Bob” Cooley by Daniel T. Frawley. Here are links to the five articles that highlighted those emails: February 27; March 1; April 8; April 17; and April 19.
There are more to come in the days ahead.
IP2P readers know that Cooley was the star witness in a series of Chicago trials in federal court in the early 1990’s that, as part of Operation Gambat,resulted in over a score of convictions involving a sitting Federal Judge, prominent Illinois politicians, and the Chicago City Council’s 1st Ward Alderman, a member of the Chicago “outfit”.
IP2P readers also know that Daniel T. Frawley was once a Chicago cop, then a business partner of Antoin “Tony” Rezko, and is now a sentenced felon who pled guilty to bank fraud. They also know that Frawley cooperated, for years, with the U.S. Attorney’s office in the investigation of Rezko and, although not called to testify against Rezko, helped put Tony behind bars.
Frawley was recently sentenced for one year and one day, after multiple sentencing delays. The judge tainted his sentence by questioning Frawley’s mental stability. At IP2P we believe his sentence was as much, perhaps more, about what he knows than what he did. And, that the timing of the jail time is aimed to keep him quiet until after the November election.
We suspect that the reference to Frawley’s potential mental instability by the sentencing judge was aimed at impugning his credibility in these emails, even after the feds used Frawley to gather information on Rezko, and in “at least a half-dozen different criminal investigations”. Although Frawley has committed to making restitution of over four million dollars, probation was never in the cards for him. (or was it ?)
Meanwhile, the two big Chicago daily newspapers, the Tribune and the Sun Times, have displayed no interest in pursuing multiple story leads that have surfaced from Frawley’s emails to Cooley.
IP2P asks - Why is that?
We think Steve Bartin, writing for the website NewGeography.com, in an article entitled “Blago’s Historic Sentencing: Organized Crime in Illinois,” may have hit upon the Tribune-Times problem when he asked, “Could a more vigilant press have stopped the amazing political career of Rod Blagojevich?”
The answer to Bartin’s rhetorical question is – Yes, of course.
That endemic Chicago corruption continues to exist is due, in no small part, to the complicity of the city’s two major daily newspapers, be that complicity benign, malignant, or a blend.
Nationally, Chicago is recognized as synonymous with corruption.
IP2P asks - Where’s the shame at the Tribune and Times?
In the future, IP2P will release more Frawley-Cooley emails, providing the two papers more leads to ignore. Until, perhaps, the citizens of Chicago begin to pressure their two major newspapers to take their jobs seriously.
A somnolent press cannot long remain free.
Another Mission Accomplished: Frawley joins Blago and Rezko in the Silence Chamber of Federal Prison
<<BREAKING NEWS>>
Thomas Barton, Illinois Pay-to-Play Political Commentator
On April 19, 2012, Federal Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced Daniel T. Frawley to one year and one day in federal prison. So Frawley joins Rezko and Blago in the Silence Chamber of federal prison until well after the November election. He reports to jail next August 20.
What Frawley knows about Rezko’s dealings with former Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama will be unavailable…until it’s irrelevant.
Let’s review Frawley’s puppet dance with the feds:
He pleads guilty to a crime after the statute of limitations had expired, and agrees to pay 4.4 million dollars restitution to the bank he defrauded.
He becomes a confidential informant in the case the U.S. Attorney’s office builds against Antoin “Tony” Rezko, but doesn’t testify at Rezko’s trial.
He is identified as CI2 in the motion to arrest Rezko, after Nadhmi Auchi sent Rezko enough money to cover those who put up assets for Tony’s bond. This causes the feds to suspect that Tony is about to jump bail and head back to the Middle East. So they arrest Tony.
The feds withhold a check for over three hundred thousand dollars made out to Frawley from Rezko, money that Frawley claims Rezko owes him. (So, where did that money go?)
Frawley is dragged through multiple postponements in his sentencing for the better part of a year, until the November ’12 election is close enough for Frawley to receive enough jail time to keep him in the Silence Chamber until the man Patrick Fitzgerald has been protecting for years is re-elected President.
Implausible explanation? Not when you step back and survey the pattern of the U.S. Attorney’s catch and release program with regard to those most closely associated with Rezko and Blago.
Frawley was guilty as charged for the crimes he committed years ago. He admitted that. But the way his case has been handled over those years calls into question the motives of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Has it been about fighting crime? Or, more about protecting corruption at the highest level of the land?
Frawley’s been a dutiful puppet on federal strings. And here’s his pay-off:
WikiLeaks on the Auchi-Rezko-Blago Connection
Thomas Barton, Illinois Pay-to-Play Political Commentator
The photo above originally appeared in a “Middle East website” and shows, left to right, Nadhmi Auchi, then Governor Rod Blagojevich, and a man who appears to be the then Iraq Minister of Electricity, Aiham Alsammarae, pictured alone below.
Alsammarae now lives in a northern suburb of Chicago.
Previously on Illinois PayToPlay, you were introduced to Andrew Walden’s 2008 piece, posted by Accuracy In Media, entitled “Iraqi Billionaire Threatens Reporters Investigating Rezko Affair.”
Bin 2008, Walden doggedly examined Nadhmi Auchi’s involvement in Illinois politics. His piece below was posted by WikiLeaks. It focuses on the extensive efforts taken by Auchi’s lawyers to suppress references to their client, worldwide. Some of the links in the original may no longer work.
__________________________________________________________________________
Debunking the Carter Ruck defence of British-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi
May 30, 2008 By Andrew Walden (Hawai'i Free Press)
“Nadhmi Auchi, seen here with the Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich (middle) at a 2004 Chicago dinner in Auchi's honor arranged by Antonin Rezko (potentially, right )[1] [It’s not Rezko in the photo.] All three men have been convicted of corruption related charges (Auchi 2003, Rezko 2008, Blagojevich 2009).[2]
“A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser (dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko) just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr. Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.” -- The Times of London February 26, 2008
The Auchi-Rezko-Obama connection came to public attention with federal marshals pounding on the door of Tony Rezko’s Wilmette Chicago mansion in the early morning of January 28, 2008. They hauled Rezko to jail after his bail was revoked for concealing a $3.5 million Auchi loan from the court. The Times outlines the story in two sentences. It should be of tremendous interest to the American public and the world.
But there is more to this story than run-of-the mill political corruption. Nadhmi Auchi is alleged to have a long affiliation with Iraqi Baathism and Saddam Hussein—which his attorneys deny. How close were they? According to a 1960 US Embassy report, Auchi was convicted along with Saddam by an Iraqi court for his part in a failed 1959 assassination attempt against then-Iraqi Prime Minister Qassim. For his crime, Auchi earned a sentence of “three years rigorous imprisonment.”
{snip}
Journalists digging into stories involving Auchi often find themselves peppered with threats of libel litigation from a London law firm known as Carter-Ruck. Auchi’s litigation threats have chased eight articles from the internet sites of the UK Guardian, Observer and New Statesman.
{snip}
WikiLeaks itself is now under legal attack by Auchi’s lawyers.
What is so stifling about English libel law? In the U.K., as Carter-Ruck explains and Slander Cases.html on its own website: “A libel claimant does not have to prove that the words are false or to prove that he has in fact suffered any loss. Damage is presumed.”
In a December, 2003, obituary, former C-R partner David Hooper wrote:
“The libel lawyer Peter Carter-Ruck, who died on Friday, had a chilling effect on the media. He was a chancer, out for the maximum fee. And he did for freedom of speech what the Boston Strangler did for door-to-door salesmen.”
Posted on the Carter-Ruck website, Injunctions.html an article by C-R partner Nigel Tait outlines the limited legal bases for “prior restraint” in England but then explains that some publishers can be convinced to censor themselves by “the first two (sic) weapons of the Spanish Inquisition. Fear, surprise and ruthless efficiency.”
Perhaps hoping to inspire “fear and surprise” with “ruthless efficiency” Carter-Ruck demand letters—laden with misspellings and what appear to be cut-and-paste formulations--have been going out not only to large British newspapers, but also to American newspapers and both well-known and obscure bloggers.
Posted on April 23, 2008—in the midst of the US Presidential race--an article on Auchi’s Middle East Online website boasted of knocking six articles off of the Guardian and Observer websites. Bloggers began receiving Carter-Ruck letters demanding that allegedly defamatory comments be removed from their comments section. MEO displayed a sphinx-like image of Auchi. The caption: "Tracking even the search engines."
It worked. When the November election came and went, the American public barely knew Rezko and knew Auchi even less. Obama won.”…
Read Walden’s thorough refutation of Carter-Ruck’s position here on WikiLeaks.
Mission Accomplished: Blago Joins Rezko in the Silence Chamber of Federal Prison
Hugo Floriani, Investigative Reporter
The crime spree that plagued Illinois, and that was boldly brought to a stop by the sudden arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich, is now officially over.
Blago is behind bars, and Patrick Fitzgerald’s mission is complete: Blago joins Rezko in the silence chamber of federal prison where the treasure trove of what they know about Illinois corruption, past and present, has been muted.
Gee, for a war against statewide crime, there sure aren’t many official casualties, except, of course, Illinois’ citizens.
We’ll never know what Blago meant in these audio clips where he talks (in language unsuitable for children) in cryptic terms about the relationship between then U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Antoin “Tony Rezko.”
(Video: H/T Citizen Wells News)
We’ll never know the extent of influence that the international billionaire financier in the photograph wielded over Tony, Blago, and Barack.
And, as soon as the two remaining Rezko Watchers highlighted in a recent piece in the Chicago Daily Observer receive their sentences this spring – unless sentencing is postponed yet again for Daniel Frawley and Daniel Mahru – they, too, will fade into silence, joining Bernard Barton, AKA John Thomas.
In the immortal words of Sonny & Cher…the beat goes on.
U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald has known of Frawley’s Obama-bribe accusation
Jontel Kassidy, Senior Capital Correspondent
Since at least last January 22nd, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has known of Daniel Frawley’s claim that he gave Tony Rezko $400,000 in cash that Rezko then passed on to U.S. Senator Barack Obama. We believe, though, that that knowledge goes back much earlier.
In a December 11, 2011 Illinois Pay To Play (IP2P) article entitled “The Fitz Solution to Corruption: The Citizens Report It,” we noted that “While commenting on Blago’s prison sentence, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald repeated what has become for him a common theme: Illinois citizens are responsible for stopping corruption by reporting it to the authorities.”
Along with that article, IP2P posted a video clip wherein Fitzgerald stated that there needed to “be a change in the public’s attitude. People seem resigned to corruption at times and…they’re afraid to say ‘no’ when someone in power asks them for something they shouldn’t. The people in power should be afraid to ask.”
So it’s a fact that the U.S. Attorney has, on several occasions, encouraged average citizens to get involved in fighting corruption.
Well, we found one citizen who did just that, back on January 22nd – six weeks ago. Here’s the email thread the citizen sent.
From: Address Deleted
To: "Randall Samborn" <Address Deleted@usdoj.gov>, "Kimberly Nerheim" <Adress Deleted@usdoj.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 9:15:44 PM
Subject: Public outreach/safety.Mr Randall Samborn and Ms. Kimberly Nerheim
I am more than a little concerned by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's complete lack of response to the serious matter that has been brought to his attention below. Mr. Fitzgerald made a very public outreach encouraging people to report corruption to his office. Hopefully he will not disappoint those he urged to risk so much ?
Concerned Citizen
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
_____________________________________________________________________________
From: Address Deleted
To: "Randall Samborn" <Address [email protected]>
Cc: "Kimberly Nerheim" <Address [email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 4:11:12 PM
Subject: What happens when citizens step up?Mr. Randall Samborn
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has repeatedly challenged the public to do something about corruption in Illinois by bringing information of illegal acts directly to him. Mr. Samborn, while I agree the premise of reporting crime to the U.S. Attorney is a logical step in fighting corruption, I do not underestimate the serious danger those who do are put in.
Need I remind you, it was also Patrick Fitzgerald who acknowledged that his office may be the source for information being leaked to the very criminals he urges the public to inform on. With this in mind, please personally hand a copy of this email to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and ask him to personally send me a response addressing concerns I have about his office and my personal safety. At the very least Mr Fitzgerald can acknowledge the risk I am taking exposing corruption at the highest levels.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Dan Frawley <Address [email protected]>
> Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 08:08:15 -0500
> Subject: Frawely vs Weaver
> To: XXXXX XXXXX <[email protected]>
>
> Hi XXXX
> I think the best way to bring this to the public and media is to fact
> plead
> the malpractice case against Weaver.
> I have discussed this with my attorney's and they are willing to do it at
> the right time and way.
> Instead of a news conference being called like the gay guy did with Obama.
> PUT AS THE GUTS OF THE SUIT THE MEETING AT THE FOUR SEASONS AND THE 4OO
> GRAND GOING TO YOU KNOW WHO AND THE USE OF THE MONEY.
> I would bring this out in the for of a legal action not a personal
> vendetta.
> The media with the right reporters would make sure that was national news.
> When the usual denials are made or the old I don't remember I hit him with
> the second naming names dates and places.
> Punches are always more effective when thrown in combination.
> know we figure out the best timing.
> DAN
And in response, what did the citizen hear back from the U.S. Attorney’s office?
Absolute silence.
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Links
- Big Government
- Bill Baar's West Side
- Chicago Daily Observer
- Citizen WElls
- Doug Ross @ Journal
- Illinois Review
- Newsalert
- PeterLance.com
- RBO2.com
- The Blaze
- The Ulsterman Report