Some very interesting news today out of the trial of Antoin “Tony” Rezko, one-time Barack Obama fundraiser and friend.
On the national level, Patrick Fitzgerald is best known as a scourge of the Bush White House, because of his role investigating the Plame leak. But he’s very much an equal opportunity prosecutor. And back in Illinois he’s been whacking away at the administration of Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. So if Fitzgerald was the toast of Dems nationally that was very much not the case in Illinois where he’s actually US Attorney.
So this morning we have this, from the Chicago Tribune …
More bombshells were lobbed in the Antoin “Tony” Rezko trial even before the jury was seated this morning and they involved a purported attempt to pull strings with the White House to fire U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald. In a hearing before court began, prosecutors said they hoped to call Ali Ata, the former Blagojevich administration official who pleaded guilty to corruption yesterday, to the stand.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Carrie Hamilton said she believed Ata would testify to conversations Ata had with his political patron, Rezko, about working to pull strings to kill the criminal investigation into Rezko and others when it was in its early stages in 2004.
“[Ata] had conversations with Mr. Rezko about the fact that Mr. Kjellander was working with Karl Rove to have Mr. Fitzgerald removed,” Hamilton told U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve.
That sentence is loaded with a who’s who of political heavyweights. Bob Kjellander was the veteran Republican National Committeeman from Illinois who was a sometimes business associate of Stuart Levine, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring with Rezko to rig state boards for contracts.
Remember too, this isn’t the first we’ve heard that Fitzgerald may have been on the chopping block in the US Attorney purge. Rove of course has never had to testify about the purge. But his minion and doppelganger Kyle Sampson did have to testify and was obliged to concede (see video here) that he had recommended Fitzgerald’s ouster.
We’ll have more on this shortly.
(ed.note: Special thanks to TPM Reader GN for the tip.)
Late Update: Paul Kiel has more.
