Developer linked to Obama arrested

[no name 1]

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Indicted real estate developer and political fundraiser Tony Rezko, whose links to Sen. Barack Obama have brought his name into the national spotlight, was arrested Monday morning, an FBI spokesman said.

Tony Rezko is facing federal charges of conspiracy, influence peddling and demanding kickbacks.

Rezko was taken into custody by the FBI at his Wilmette, Illinois, home just outside Chicago following a government motion to revoke his bond, said FBI spokesman Tom Simon.

Rezko -- whom Sen. Hillary Clinton referred to in a debate as having run a "slum landlord business" -- has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, influence peddling and demanding kickbacks from companies seeking Illinois state business.

Obama, speaking Sunday to ABC's "This Week," described Rezko as "a friend of mine, a supporter, who I've known for 20 years."

Rezko has contributed to the campaigns of numerous Democrats, including Obama -- though the Illinois senator has vowed to give up all funds connected to Rezko.

Obama has already given to charity more than $80,000 in campaign contributions linked to Rezko.

When asked about news reports suggesting he may have received more money than that connected to Rezko, Obama said, "What we've done is we've traced any funds that we know of that we think were connected to him. And if there any other funds that were connected to him that we're not aware of, then we will certainly return them. It's in our interest to do so."

Obama said in a debate that as an attorney he did just about five hours of work for a Rezko project. Obama has not been accused of any legal wrongdoing.

"I did make a mistake by purchasing a small strip of property from him, at a time where, at that point, he was under the cloud of a potential investigation," Obama told ABC Sunday.

Shortly after his election to the U.S. Senate, Obama bought a house for $300,000 below the asking price. The same day, Rezko's wife bought the lot next door for full price. Months later, Obama bought a sliver of the Rezko land to expand his yard.

As a state senator, Obama wrote letters supporting some Rezko deals.

Obama told ABC Sunday he has "provided all the information that's out there" about his involvement with Rezko.

link

[Mags 112]

It's all LIES, LIES I tell ya. Obama is cute and cuddly and would never do anything wrong. I LOVE Obama.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Chicago Tribune, Factcheck.org, Washington Post: Obama Never Represented Tony Rezko

FactCheck.org On Clinton's Claim Obama Represented Rezko: "That's Untrue." Factcheck.org reported, "Obama was associated with a law firm that represented the community groups working with Rezko on several deals. There's no evidence that Obama spent much time on them, and he never represented Rezko directly. So it was wrong for Clinton to say he was 'representing ... Rezko.' That's untrue." [FactCheck.org, 1/21/08]

Chicago Tribune Review Of "Land And Court Document And Law Firm Files As Well As Correspondence And Other Records...Supports [Obama's] Contention That He Did Not Directly Represent Rezko's Development Firm." The Chicago Tribune reported, "Obama angrily rejected Clinton's accusation at Monday's Democratic debate. And a Tribune review of land and court documents and law firm files as well as correspondence and other records related to Obama's eight years as an Illinois state lawmaker supports his contention that he did not directly represent Rezko's development firm. Instead, the records show, he represented non-profit community groups that partnered with Rezko's firm." [Chicago Tribune, 1/23/08]

Tribune Examined Miner Barnhill's "260 Civil And Criminal Cases," IHDA And DOH Files, Clients From Obama's "Unusually Frank Ethics Disclosure Reports" And Found Obama Represented The Non-Profit Partner. The Chicago Tribune reported, "At the Tribune's request, Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans produced a list of all 260 civil and criminal cases in which the firm filed appearances, and the Tribune separately examined 1990s lawsuits that Rezmar Corp. listed in applications for government grants. The paper also examined files from the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the city housing department, as well as the hundreds of clients Obama listed in the unusually frank ethics disclosure reports he filed as a state senator from December 1995 through April 2004. Those and other records disclosed five instances in which Obama did legal work for ventures that included Rezmar Corp. The case of City of Chicago vs. Central Woodlawn Limited Partnership is one example. In 1992, that community group partnered with Rezmar Corp. to rehab the former slum apartment building at 6107-6115 S. Ellis Ave. As work was ongoing, city officials sued the developers, alleging 16 serious code violations at the property, including a dangerously dilapidated porch. Obama and a co-counsel filed appearances in February 1994, but the court records show they appeared on behalf of Central Woodlawn, Rezko's non-profit partner, not Rezko or his company." [Chicago Tribune, 1/23/08]

Washington Post Fact Check: "Investigations By Chicago Newspapers Have Not Produced Evidence That [Obama] Represented Rezko In A Slum Landlord Business." The Washington Post reported, "William Miceli, Obama's supervisor at the law firm, said the firm represented the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a nonprofit group that redeveloped a run-down property on Chicago's South Side with Rezko. He called Clinton's assertion that Obama represented Rezko in a slum landlord business 'categorically untrue. He was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review,' said Miceli, adding that Obama did what he was told by the firm. According to Miceli, that was the only time Obama worked on a Rezko-related project while at the law firm…But investigations by Chicago newspapers have not produced evidence that he represented Rezko in a slum landlord business. What has been demonstrated so far is that he did some due diligence legal work for a joint venture between Rezko and a Chicago nonprofit. Two Pinocchios for Clinton." [Washington Post, 1/22/08]

MINER: OBAMA DID MINOR WORK REPRESENTING THE NON-PROFIT

Miner: Obama Filed Incorporation Papers For The Non-Profits. The AP reported, "Attorneys there say Obama never represented Rezko directly. The future senator did represent community organizations that were Rezko partners in rehabilitating buildings to provide apartments for the poor…Judson Miner, a partner in the firm, said that Obama's role was small. He said Obama did perhaps six or seven hours of work on such projects, mainly filing incorporation papers for the nonprofit groups." [AP, 1/22/08]

Obama Said That Miner Barnhill "Was Representing The Non-For-Profit Partner, Where There's No Allegations That They Did Anything Wrong." Obama said, "My law firm was representing the non for profit partner, where there's no allegations that they did anything wrong. They were simply trying to develop non for profit housing in the district." [Fox News, 4/24/07]

Obama Said That Miner Barnhill Was "Brought In Through [The Non-Profits], Not Through Rezko." The Chicago Tribune reported, "Responding to a Chicago Sun-Times report that Obama's former law firm did legal work for Rezko's low-income housing development business, the Illinois senator said he performed five hours of work on behalf of non-profit housing groups that partnered with Rezko. 'We were brought in through them [the non-profits], not through Rezko,' Obama said." [Chicago Tribune, 4/24/07]

Edited January 28, 2008 by Mister Fancypants

[no name 1]

Indicted political fundraiser arrested

Antoin 'Tony' Rezko poured thousands of dollars into Obama's campaign

updated 54 minutes ago

CHICAGO - A federal judge on Monday revoked the bond of an indicted real estate developer and political fundraiser whose contributions to Barack Obama's political campaigns subjected the Democratic White House hopeful to criticism from his chief rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The federal judge revoked the $2 million bail saying she feared Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a developer and fast food magnate, could be a flight risk. The judge said she became concerned after learning, among other things, that Rezko had received $3.5 million from a company in Lebanon after claiming he did not have any income.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy J. St. Eve remanded Rezko into the custody of the U.S. Marshall and scheduled another hearing for Tuesday.

Some of the people who put up property in Rezko's name also are renting out or trying to sell the property, according to prosecutors, raising concerns there may not be enough collateral to secure Rezko's bond.

Rezko, who was arrested at his suburban Chicago home Monday morning, has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, attempted extortion and money laundering. He is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 25.

Earlier Monday, Rezko attorney Joseph Duffy said he needed to get more information about the allegations before commenting.

The Democratic presidential candidate and senator from Illinois has said he had no indication of problems with Rezko when he accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. When prosecutors unsealed their charges against Rezko in 2006, Obama gave $11,500 (euro7,820) in Rezko contributions to charities.

Obama has since sought to distance himself from Rezko, even as Clinton invoked Rezko's name and his "slum lord business" during a recent debate. His campaign declined to comment on Rezko's arrest.

Earlier this month, Obama gave to charity more than $40,000 (euro27,109) in past political contributions from seven individuals with ties to Rezko. The decision to donate the money contributed to Obama's House and Senate campaigns -- but not his current presidential bid -- came after a published report that Obama is the unnamed "political candidate" in one paragraph of a 78-page prosecution document that outlines the case against Rezko.

Obama also has had to answer questions about how Rezko became involved in the purchase of the Obama family home as well as other ties to Rezko that go back more than 15 years.

Obama has been accused of no wrongdoing involving Rezko or anyone else.

Rezko also has been one of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's leading fundraisers.

Rezko is charged in a 24-count indictment with pressuring businesses seeking work before two state regulatory boards to make campaign contributions and payoffs.

Once the trial, which is expected to last two to three months, is over, Rezko still will face federal charges alleging he swindled General Electric Capital Corp. out of $10 million (euro6.78 million) in connection with the sale of two pizza restaurant chains.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22881240/

[GaryC 7]

[no name 1]

I see my stalker is back.

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

That's going to be hard to hide from. Pot meet kettle.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

That's going to be hard to hide from. Pot meet kettle.

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

For those who haven't figured it out, the picture Gary posted is one of the following people:

Billary, Tony Rezko, Hillbilly

[GaryC 7]

For those who haven't figured it out, the picture Gary posted is one of the following people:

Billary, Tony Rezko, Hillbilly

The other picture was Hillary and Norman Hsu. A fugitive that was just caught. He is in jail for ripping off millions from investors and donating large sums to the dems including Hillary. In other words, he is much worse than what Hillary is trying to pin on Obama.

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

The other picture was Hillary and Norman Hsu. A fugitive that was just caught. He is in jail for ripping off millions from investors and donating large sums to the dems including Hillary. In other words, he is much worse than what Hillary is trying to pin on Obama.

I didn't know who he was, so I didn't comment, but that's nice to know.

I'm voting for Ziltoid.

[no name 1]

The photo of Rezko and the Clintons, which is undated, was released on the Drudge Report before being taken up by other news sources. It shows Rezko standing between the former First Lady and the President. Political observers believe that the photo possibly was taken in 1997 in Chicago, at a fund-raiser for U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.

source

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The photo of Rezko and the Clintons, which is undated, was released on the Drudge Report before being taken up by other news sources. It shows Rezko standing between the former First Lady and the President. Political observers believe that the photo possibly was taken in 1997 in Chicago, at a fund-raiser for U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.

source

Dev, the point is...this amounts to nothing but a dirty style of politics traditionally done by the Republicans and Hillary's taken a page from Rove's playbook. She's got enough skeleton's in her closet that whatever dirt she tries to dig up on Obama just won't stick. I really wish she wouldn't go this route and instead compete with him on the issues, but I can see this as her moment of desperation. Super Tuesday is going to be interesting.

[no name 1]

The photo of Rezko and the Clintons, which is undated, was released on the Drudge Report before being taken up by other news sources. It shows Rezko standing between the former First Lady and the President. Political observers believe that the photo possibly was taken in 1997 in Chicago, at a fund-raiser for U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.

source

Dev, the point is...this amounts to nothing but a dirty style of politics traditionally done by the Republicans and Hillary's taken a page from Rove's playbook. She's got enough skeleton's in her closet that whatever dirt she tries to dig up on Obama just won't stick. I really wish she wouldn't go this route and instead compete with him on the issues, but I can see this as her moment of desperation. Super Tuesday is going to be interesting.

Bottom line...

Um, she didn't revoke his bail or file charges. Nor did she 'expose' him.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Slinging slime is what Clintons do best

By PHILIP GAILEY

Published January 27, 2008

Bill Clinton is all over the place, like a mad dog's slobber.

On the campaign trail as his wife's chief surrogate, he is losing his temper, snapping at reporters, mangling the truth, distorting the record including his own and acting more like a political hatchet man than a former president. He warns that voting for Barack Obama would be a "roll of the dice." Obama's record as a consistent opponent of the Iraq war is a "fairy tale." Last week in South Carolina, Clinton accused Obama of doing a "hit job" on him, but refused to back up the charge. He has injected race into the campaign by defining Obama as just another black candidate who can't go all the way.

Compared to the dirty work being handled by other surrogates and anonymous character assassins, Bill Clinton is taking the high road. Even so, some leading Democrats fear he is damaging the party. Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who are neutral in the race, asked the former president to stop sliming and slamming Obama, according to Newsweek. He is not about to back off. If the price of taking down Obama is to tarnish his post-White House image as a global statesman, Clinton doesn't mind paying it. The Big Dog is having too much fun doing what he does best, which is being unpresidential.

Narcissist that he is, Bill Clinton can't pass up an opportunity to remind voters of the glory years of his presidency, years Hillary promises to restore without all the scandals and embarrassments. Great was his unfaithfulness, and he owes her big-time. Maybe he figures getting her into the Oval Office he occupied for eight years will settle that debt. But as always, it's also about him. If Hillary Clinton is about to make history, he intends to play a starring role in his wife's campaign - and almost certainly in her presidency.

In Clinton-think, it's bad enough that Barack Obama didn't defer to Hillary this time and wait his turn. But the nerve of this guy trying to become the nation's first president who happens to be black. Hasn't anyone told Obama that Toni Morrison called Bill Clinton the nation's "first black president" a decade ago?

Politics is a game of hard knocks, some below the belt, and it is not for the faint-hearted. And no one plays political hardball as aggressively as the Clintons. They are ruthless when it comes to smashing their opponents or anyone else who threatens their political ambitions. What they are doing to Barack Obama is not all that different from what they did to the women who outed Clinton as a serial adulterer as governor of Arkansas and as president.

When it comes to the politics of personal destruction, the Clintons know how to get the job done while appearing to be above the ugliness of it all. Defamation is their weapon of choice.

In Iowa, an e-mail was bouncing around the state planting suspicion that Obama was a Muslim who had been trained in radical Islam in an Indonesian madrassa. This slander was traced by to some Clinton campaign volunteers, who were asked to resign. The candidate said there was no place in her campaign for such smears.

Then Bill Shaheen, co-chairman of Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, told reporters of his concern that if Obama, who has admitted using illegal drugs as a teenager, were to win the nomination, some voters might wonder if he also may have been a dope peddler. When Obama cried foul, Shaheen apologized and resigned from his campaign post. Hillary Clinton apologized to Obama for Shaheen's smear. The apologies and resignation kept the story alive by repeating the original defamation.

Before the Clintons are through with Obama, he will be stumbling around punch-drunk from all the jabs, kicks, slaps and punches the Clintons are throwing at him. They make outrageously false claims about his record and distort his words. And when he fights back, Hillary asks, whatever happened to Obama's promise to lift politics to higher ground?

Nicholas von Hoffman, a New York Observer columnist, wrote last week: "The heart of the Clintons' strategy is to pull Obama down to their level . . . The Clintons cannot compete with the enthusiasm Obama sets off so they must destroy it. Their tactic is disillusionment. They are the quashers of the dream. Bring Obama's people down by showing them he is just another pol like themselves."

The Clintons don't seem to care if black voters are offended by the way they have been roughing up Obama. Like the Democratic Party, they take black votes for granted in the general election. And besides, maybe after Hillary wins the nomination with the support of Hispanics, now the nation's largest minority, black voters will take note and wonder if Hillary Clinton will be known as the nation's "first Hispanic president."

St. Pete Times