Feds followed the money with Rezko

Tony Rezko lashed out yesterday at federal prosecutors, accusing them of political motivations in seeking to pressure him into becoming a material witness against Governor Rod Blagojevich and Senator Barack Obama. The convicted fraudster and Democratic political fixer said that the prosecutors who won convictions on 16 of 24 counts of fraud and corruption acted in an “overzealous” manner and had targeted top Democrats in the state:

Imprisoned Chicago businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko has accused federal prosecutors of improperly pressuring him to implicate Barack Obama in a corruption case.

In a letter to the U.S. District judge who presided over his trial, Rezko, who was convicted this month of 16 corruption-related counts, including fraud and money laundering, called prosecutors “overzealous.” And he singled out what he said were their efforts to get him to turn on Obama, an Illinois senator and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and Illinois Gov. Rod Bagojevich.

“They are pressuring me to tell them the ‘wrong’ things that I supposedly know about Gov. Bagojevich and Sen. Obama,” Rezko wrote in an undated letter released by the court this week. “I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the governor or the senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people.”

Before the howls of outrage over political harrassment begin, a few facts should remain in play. First, the statement itself has problems. Testimony in the case directly tied Rezko to “wrongdoing”, in his words, that involved the Governor. Ali Ata testified that Blagojevich explicitly told Rezko to find a job for him after coughing up thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, one that would pay very well.

Under those conditions, any prosecutor worth his salt would start following the money wherever it led. It certainly leads to Barack Obama, whose story on Rezko’s involvement — and worth — in his campaigns has had at least three versions. Originally, Obama claimed that Rezko had only ever raised $50,000 for his campaigns, including his run for the Senate. Later, that blossomed to $150,000, after the Chicago media started digging through campaign-finance records. Finally in March, Obama admitted that Rezko had raised over $250,000 over a period of nine years for his political campaigns.

Just because he committed “wrongdoing” in other campaigns doesn’t mean that Rezko committed fraud or corruption in Obama’s campaigns — but it isn’t difficult to understand why federal prosecutors pressed Rezko on that question. If he acted as bagman for Blagojevich, and Ata’s testimony suggests that he did, why would he suddenly change his MO for Obama? Especially with Obama having memory lapses about the centrality of Rezko to his fundraising efforts, that direction at least looked promising.

And finally, Rezko wants to rationalize his conviction in this case by making it about political vendettas and not his own corruption and fraud. The trial took place in full view of the media and the jury, and the latter chose their verdicts carefully as the split decision indicates. Rezko can cry all the way to the hoosegow, but his conviction stemmed from his own actions and not any overzealousness by federal prosecutors.

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