Friday News: Blago, Rezko Rear Their Ugly Heads

Obama and Blagojevich in happier times

Good Morning, Conflucians!!

Ooops! Someone goofed when redacting all information about President Obama from a motion filed in the Rod Blagojevich trial, and the judge had to call an emergency meeting. Meanwhile the unredacted material leaked out.

Former governor Rod Blagojevich’s defense team asked Thursday to issue a trial subpoena to the President of the United States of America.

The motion, intended to be heavily redacted, was improperly edited — the full document was easily viewable if the text is copied and pasted to another document (an error first revealed on Capitol Fax).

It seems that:

Obama may have lied about conversations with convicted fraudster Tony Rezko.
Obama may have overtly recommended Valerie Jarret for his Senate seat.
A supporter of President Obama may have offered quid pro quo on a Jarrett senate appointment
Obama maintained a list of good Senate candidates
Rahm Emanuel allegedly floated Cheryl Jackson’s name for the Senate seat
Obama had a secret phone call with Blagojevich

Read the details at the Ward Room, linked above. Here is the original motion requesting that Obama be subpoenaed.

The judge held an emergency hearing to discuss this terrible mistake.

The Rezko-Obama land deal has arisen again. As you can see, this information was being discussed in Chicago way back in 2006, but somehow it never really became an issue in the 2008 primaries or general election campaign, thanks to the bought-off corporate media.

Mediaite breaks down the material in the Blagojevich motion, and provides helpful commentary.

Jeralyn posted about the story at Talk Left, and she’s been busy censoring comments to make sure no one says there is anything questionable about Obama’s association with Tony Rezko and the land deal that allowed Obama to buy a very nice house that was way beyond his means at the time. From the comments:

Because (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by squeaky on Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 05:51:03 PM EST

The horse has been beaten to death, Rezko turned government witness and Obama has come out of this clean. A boneheaded mistake is miles away from insinuating criminal behavior.
Fanning the flames with innuendo of a criminal behavior is a cheap shot.

[ Parent ]

Actually, accusations (5.00 / 5) (#26)
by Inspector Gadget on Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 06:09:20 PM EST

were laid to rest pretty fast in the mainstream, and no one really got answers to anything. It’s probably why you are so sensitive to topics that continue to come up. When you can’t answer the question, frustration rises.
If it was beaten to death, and you know exactly what took place, perhaps you would share the information so we can all be as comfortable as you are about Rezko.

[ Parent ]

not so (5.00 / 1) (#30)
by Jeralyn on Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 06:30:33 PM EST

accusations were put to rest by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzerald. Obama did nothing illegal with Rezko. It’s Blagojevich that Rezko is cooperating against, not Obama.
Please stay on topic which is: Blago/Obama and Blago/Rezko. The only relevance between Obama/Rezko is Blago’s assertion that Obama may be able to impugn Rezko’s. He’s not claiming Rezko would besmirch Obama. His motion says:

President Obama’s relationship with Tony Rezko is relevant and necessary Fed. R. Evid. 404(b) and 406 evidence.
I wonder, did he mean 404(b) or 405(b)?

I’ve deleted sniping comments without substance. If commenters want to attack each other, please share your email addresses with each other and do it privately.

{hysterical laughter}

These stories are highlighted at Memeorandum, but Jerelyn is the only access blogger who has posted about them. I’m sure this will be heavily covered at the Cheeto once they get the word. Or not.

According to the Wall Street Journal,

The former governor’s trial is set to start June 3, a year and a half after he was ousted from office amid prosecutors’ allegations that he had plotted to sell the

U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Mr. Obama when he was elected president [….]

At a news conference this week, he called U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a coward. Mr. Fitzgerald brought the corruption charges against Mr. Blagojevich and has challenged the former governor’s effort to make public all 500 hours of secretly recorded tapes at the heart of the case.

In an 11-page motion filed Thursday, Mr. Blagojevich’s attorneys argued that only Mr. Obama could resolve what they called contradictions between his public statements and the prosecutors’ case.

And in other news…..

Sorry, in my mind, there is no other news. Post your links freely in the comments and have a fabulous Friday!