Rezko sentencing November 22, 2011, Prosecutors seek stiff sentence?, Obama is not your friend, Tell all

“Rezko has also stated in interviews with the government that he believed he transmitted a quid pro quo offer from a lobbyist to the public official, whereby the lobbyist would hold a fundraiser for the official in exchange for favorable official action”

“The defense has a good faith belief that this public official is Barack Obama.”…Blagojevich defense subpoena of Barack Obama

“I’m assuming the information is about the payments made by Rezko to Obama, so we know we’re talking about the right conversation, right?” …Attorney Daniel Konicek, Frawley Deposition

“Why did the Illinois Senate Health & Human Services Committee, with Obama as chairman, create and push Bill 1332, “Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act,” early in 2003, which reduced the number of members on the Board from 15 to 9, just prior to rigging by Tony Rezko and Rod Blagojevich?”…Citizen Wells

“I believe I’m more pristine on Rezko than him.”…Rod Blagojevich

From the Chicago Tribune November 04, 2011.

“Prosecutors seek stiff time for Rezko”

“Federal prosecutors downplayed the extent of the cooperation provided by Antoin “Tony” Rezko in calling for the former top fundraiser to disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to be sentenced to 11 to 15 years in prison.

Prosecutors noted that Rezko agreed to cooperate only after a federal jury convicted him in 2008 on 16 counts of fraud, bribery and money laundering and that he continued to hide many of his criminal activities in his first 19 interviews with the government.

The government didn’t call Rezko as a witness at either the Blagojevich trial or the recent trial of Springfield power broker William Cellini, saying in its filing that “the value of the information he could have provided was overwhelmed by the attacks that could be made on Rezko’s credibility.”

The government’s 48-page memo was filed late Thursday, just hours after a federal judge had unsealed the defense’s position paper on Rezko’s sentencing, scheduled for Nov. 22. Rezko’s lawyers argued that he should be sentenced to time served. He has already spent almost four years in custody while awaiting sentencing.

In its filing, the defense made much of the fact that Rezko had been harshly treated in jail — first at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center and then in a county jail in Wisconsin. It said he had “not enjoyed a breath of fresh air or a ray of sunlight” in his 44 months in custody and said conditions of that kind were usually reserved for “the most violent or mentally disturbed inmates,” not a public-corruption defendant.

Prosecutors argued that Rezko’s conditions of confinement do not justify a sentence of time served but agreed that U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve, in fashioning her sentence, should consider the nine months Rezko spent in solitary confinement at the Loop jail.

The government compared Rezko’s level of wrongdoing to that of Stuart Levine, a corrupt insider who faces about 5 1/2 years in prison after cutting a plea deal. But prosecutors said Rezko deserved a much stiffer sentence because Levine’s cooperation had been far more significant.

Calling his cooperation “truly remarkable,” prosecutors pointed out that Levine agreed to cooperate after he had been charged and even wore a wire on former Chicago Ald. Edward Vrdolyak, leading to Vrdolyak’s conviction.”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-04/news/ct-met-rezko-sentencing-1105-20111105_1_antoin-tony-rezko-stuart-levine-loop-jail

From the Chicago SunTimes November 4, 2011.

“In court papers asking a judge to free him from jail later this month
rather than having to do more time, convicted political fund-raiser
Tony Rezko said that after spending 20 years in Chicago politics, he
was still taken aback by a request that allegedly came from former
Gov. Rod Blagojevich.”

“The filing did give new insight to the extent of Rezko’s cooperation
with the government, saying he had met with authorities 29 separate
days over the three years following his conviction and that memo
summaries of his interviews fill 360 pages.

Lawyers said that it was Rezko who initially implicated Monk, who was
charged, and government witness Joe Aramanda. Rezko also implicated
lobbyist John Wyma, they say, and Wyma gave the feds probable cause to
wiretap Blagojevich’s phones.

A onetime fund-raiser to Barack Obama, Rezko had voluntarily
surrendered to prison after he was convicted on 16 of 24 counts to
begin immediately begin his sentence.

Rezko was convicted of using his clout to control state government and
direct kickbacks from government deals to himself and others.

He spent 276 days in solitary confinement at the downtown lockup,
something that the jail typically does with high-profile inmates. He
was later moved to a county jail in Wisconsin and has lost more than
80 pounds since he’s been locked up with his “weight dipping to a low
of 154 pounds.”

“With this dramatic weight loss, Mr. Rezko has shrunk from a robust,
if somewhat overweight, man to a frail and gaunt shell of his former
self,” his lawyers wrote.

“He has not enjoyed a breath of fresh air or a ray of sunlight for
nearly three and a half years, and he has not been allowed to hug his
wife or daughter since he left the MCC nearly three years ago.””

“Lawyers said Rezko’s own success in business led him to branch out and
support numerous national, state and local politicians.

“And, of course, Mr. Rezko was a friend, advisor, and early supporter
of a young politician named Barack Obama,” lawyers wrote.

Federal prosecutors are expected to file a position on Rezko’s
sentencing late Thursday and sources say they are expected to ask for
a sentence greater than the 5 ½ years that co-conspirator Stuart
Levine is slotted to get under his plea deal.”

http://www.suntimes.com/8593723-417/after-44-months-tony-rezko-asks-to-be-sentenced-to-time-served.html

From John Kass of the Chicago Tribune June 13, 2008.

“The last thing Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich needed was that letter written by convicted Illinois influence peddler Tony Rezko promising he’d never rat out his pals.”

“They are pressuring me to tell them the ‘wrong’ things that I supposedly know about Governor Blagojevich and Senator Obama,” the fundraiser (and Obama’s personal real estate fairy) wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve.

“I have never been a party to any wrongdoing that involved the Governor or the Senator,” Rezko argued. “I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take whatever comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-13-jun13,0,1570658.column

Every press report, every comment coming from Rezko’s attorney since then has indicated thet he has been cooperating with the feds.

The question is, why wasn’t Rezko called as a witness in the Blagojevich and Cellini trials?

The answer is.

To keep Obama’a name and activities out of court testimony and the press and set Rezko up with a tougher sentence as the fall guy. To keep him quiet.

If you are Tony Rezko, a Rezko family member or friend or one of Rezko’s attorneys, urge Mr. Rezko to reveal all about Obama. Obama is not your friend.

Contact me with a comment on this blog. I promise you that if Rezko talks, I will do everything in my power to get the information in front of the American public and appropriate members of Congress.