The Rezko verdict: Guilty on four of first five counts; guilty on 16 of 24 counts involving mail/wire fraud, money laundering, and corrupt solicitation charges
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It’s coming.
But you know, it’s just a “distraction.” And this discussion is definitely not good for Barack and Michelle Obama’s kids.
ABC: “The jury in the federal corruption trial of Antonin Rezko has reached a verdict, according to the court. The verdict will be delivered in court at 3:45 p.m. central time at the federal courthouse in Chicago. Rezko, a real estate developer who became known in Illinois politics as a behind-the-scenes operator and fixer, is accused of bribery and extortion.”
Sun-Times: “Guilty on four of first five counts.”
Via WLS:
- Guilty on 12 of 15 counts mail/wire fraud
- Not Guilty on 1 count attempted extortion
- Guilty on 2 of 6 counts corrupt solicitation
- Guilty on 2 counts money laundering
Chicago Trib has a good multimedia section with audio exhibits from the trial, an Obama-Rezko timeline, and more background.
***
It ain’t over. Las Vegas still wants Rezko over gambling debts.
And he still faces trial in a $10 million business-loan fraud case in Chicago federal court.
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Sounds like Congressional material.
Chicago Tribune: Guilty on at least one count.
Via Ace commenter:
WLS Radio reports Guilty on 5 counts so far.
This conversation may not be good for Michelle’s kids, but I bet that side yard Rezco sold the Obamas for under market value helps their kids.
And Drudge just changed his headline about Obama using JFK’s daughter to look for a VP candidate…
Hmmm…
Guilty on 16 of 24 by last count…
Judge people by the company they keep, right?
Enough said.
I wonder if the feds will offer him a deal if he testifies against other crooked members of the Cook County machine. I’m not sure if Patrick Fitzgerald is still the US attny out there, he much prefers to persecute Republicans, but whoever decided to charge Rezko probably knew of his Osama connections.
Of course, the ‘confirmed bachelor’ Fitzgerald might have been a Hillary supporter.
#7:
Unless you are speaking about the Obamessiah. Then you don’t get to judge at all. To judge is to be raaaacist, don’tcha know?
Barry’s first presidential pardon.
Whew. Good thing Hillary didn’t drop out yet.
#11 See Dubya
That was Hugh Hewitt’s opinion a few days ago as to why she wouldn’t quit.
I just hope the Feds offer him a deal to rat out the rest of the crooked Chicago machine.
Disclaimer: I have an anti-Chicago bias. When I lived at Great Lakes, IL, Chicago had already raised the drinking age to 21, I was 18 at the time. So I much prefer Milwaukee and Kenosha, and will root for the Pack over the Bears any time, although I am a Cowboys fan.
The same WLS(TV) just reported that McCain’s Townhall concept is really Obama’s idea. I’m lost.
But now that Rezko went down for the count, us Illinoisans can hope the feds take down our jackass governor, Rod Blagojevich.
If Rezko was connected to the Stupid Party candidate, the Treason Media would be all over it like flies on whatever flies would be on. Since he’s a close crony of the Obamessiah’s, though, we shall never hear this question: “If elected, will you pardon Mr. Rezko?” We will hear more able McCain being the sole Stupid Party member of the Keating Five than we will about the Obamessiah’s magic house bought by a convicted felon.
I was watching Fox on this and they said that bho name was only mentioned a ‘few’ times with the trial. Please don’t let this be put ‘under the bus’. That slug slime, aka bho, needs to have ALL we can find on him and wifeee put out for voters to make a decision in Nov.
L
You mean someone allowed that moron to BREED!?!
We’re toast….
This does not help Obama’s wallet, or his next house purchase, or his friends next government job!
so this is what beckel was talking about
This isn’t going to help Michelle’s kids
Well the Cubs are on a 9 game winning streak and are in first place. Corrupt political machine found guilty in Chicago???? Hell must be freezing over now.
The MSM will do the same with this story what they did with the Jefferson indictement—sweep it under the rug. They’ll have to keep it in the news (page 35 or 40) for at least a day or two, and then crickets. After all, this ain’t a mean Republican, it’s a bulletproof liberal. I’m anxious to see what kind of a sentence he gets, along with his probation.
Don’t count the hill out yet. I would think that she knew that this would come today and therefore that is why her speech was so in his face. That woman scares me more than a cracked hydrogen line. That woman is not done.
Denver will be the top show of the year. By far…
It’s too bad FOX has taken a recent turn towards the left, we may have had a good story about BHO here. But I’m afraid the only people that will hear about the connection is BLOG readers. The rest will just stay asleep, thanks to the MSM being Hussein fans.
ROFL!!
As for Rezko, Mr. Obama considers it off-limits in the campaign.
Add it to the growing list of taboo topics to him: wife, church, friends, pastor, ears, record, experience…
Now what will Obama do? Will he pay Rezko back by giving him a pardon in his first term in office, or will he play it safe and wait for all appeals to be exhausted before issuing the pardon in his second term?
He doesn’t seem like the grateful type to me, so I bet he plays it safe.
Rezko: Please your honor, have mercy on me, I had mercy on my victims, I could have bilked them out of much more.
Judge: Mr. Rezko the jury has been instructed in the law and have found you guilty and at the recommendation of the jury I sentence you to 6 months probation, 3 months community service, a $1000.00 fine, a stern waging of my finger and two swats on your hands from the nun sitting in the first row.
NOW things will get interesting.
Each count of mail/wire fraud carries a maximum of 20 years if the fraud was not against a financial institution (30 years of it involves a bank).
Just on the mail and wire fraud convictions alone, Rezko is looking at the possibility of 240 years.
The feds did not have much leverage without a conviction to get him to open up, but he is now facing the possibility of spending the rest of his natural life in a federal prison. Suffice it to say, that he will be highly motivated to cut any deal he can to reduce his prison time.
Tony Rezko may just be the fat lady in this Presidential election.
Plenty of room under the bus, now that grandma has been retrieved, she’ll make a good prop on the campaign trail
…does this mean that the side lot Rezko – ahem - “owns” next to the Obama’s Chicago residence is “in danger”? I’m worried about Michelle’s kids! /sarc
“Obama – squawk! Yes we can! squawk!”
Gotta love that parrot.
Watch the fallout. Rezko dealt with grants to Chicago area hospitals and Michele Obama just happed to be out on a board of a Chicago Hospital…
Oxford, Wisconsin. Home to more and more FIP’s (f’in Illinois politicians).
Blago and Ryan can soon swap stories.
But that was so long ago, so 10 minutes ago…. can’t we talk about Change and Hope?
Hey, I want to know about those grants to Chicago Hospitals via Mr. Rezko. Michelle, can you enlighten us? We got the 15 mil (tip of the iceberg) to Trinity, what else ya got?
Gov. Hairspray is the one that should be worried. Remember that the funds were going to his campaign.
WWHD? (what would Hillary do?)
Hmmmmmm?
The only program I watch on Fox News is the O’Reilly Factor, but like Walterc stated above, Fox has turned to the left and O’Reilly’s turning with it, so this story might get a mention on The Factor, but it will be as a side note. I use to watch the whole hour of the Factor, but since Bill has too many liberals and seems to pander to B. Hussein, I can’t watch the whole show anymore.
I wish the public could have better access to a computer, because they won’t get the straight story from the MSM.
Results?
Nothing whatsoever will happen to B Hussein over this in the MSM. He will not be asked a single question of any substance.
He is, however, toast in the general election. As dumb as this country is (see: addiction to American Idol and reality shows, et al), the drones do have a breaking point. Liberals are more than happy and ready to elect a racist, terrorist-friendly black man, but the rest of America is not…
For sure this guy should be running for Congress in California.
Questionis: how will the MSM bury this?
Were it McCain tied to this guy, the NYTimes would be blaring it in large type on the front page: GOP SCANDAL.
Given the Gov and Daley machine ties this guy has, its DEM SCANDAL in Illinois, including Obama.
Wanna bet they put it below the fold, or worse, buried inside some place?
Rezko likely isn’t even worried about this, he knows a President Obama would just give him a pardon. Along with innumerable other Chicago mafia……Clinton redux.
He’s already chosen for his VP Selection Team – Eric Holder – the man who shepherded the Marc Rich (and others) pardon through the justice department…..with very few people in the justice department ever seeing them!
On June 4th, 2008 at 7:03 pm, Ordinary Coloradan said:
Questionis: how will the MSM bury this?
CBS is running this w/out much spin… buy a lottery ticket.
How delicious. Rezko is guilty. I hope he is persuaded to rat out his former
compatriots. It will make for an interesting Summer. And I will once again be able to use my bumper sticker:
Don’t Blame Me, I Don’t Vote Democrat.
Can I somehow retroactively add this scumbag criminal Rezko to all of the “Obama is bad because” lists? It would be easier.
Oh well, we’ll just need to add this ’soon to be felon’ to the b. hussein lists from now on ( and leave space for more bad guys/ladies…this can’t be over)
HEY! We’re already stuck with the Creature from the Botox Lagoon, Babs Boxer, Maxine Waters and Ah-nold… give us a break!
This won’t matter one iota to libtards. It is simply a drop in the ocean of reasons why BO is not fit to be POTUS. They do not care if Satan himself were running with a “D” after his name. They do not care about issues, character or experience, they only care about beating the evil Republicans. They never speak about making the US a better place, with concrete policies to back it up… it’s always, “we have to come together to defeat the Republicans!”. Idiots.
The REVERANDS for REZKO :
Any bets that the REVS are a RUSE for REZKO?!!!!!
I’m hoping some people can help me out here. I found the below article on one of the blogs I read regularly, but can’t remember which one. But in any case, after reading all six parts of the report, I was absolutely fascinated, but now I cannot understand why the blogosphere is not more abuzz about this… Is it not accurate? Is Obama not implicated as much as this report would leave one to believe? The last chapter is especially intriguing.
I linked to the last chapter simply because it gives the links for the first five parts. It’s long, but a good read.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0805/S00325.htm
Corruption is the great city of Chicago? Who would have thought it with that nice Mayor Daly in charge. John Wayne Gacy missed one.
The evening news in on now and not one word so far.
This will affect Obama somewhat less than White Water affected the Clintons, which is to say not at all. People on this site seem to perpetually have their hopes up that some scandal is going to come along that will derail Obama’s campaign. Unless it is discovered he had electro-shock therapy (I’m reaching back to McGovern-Eagleton for those who remember it), it just ain’t gonna happen. And even then . . .
Clearly it’s Boooooosh’s fault that Tony Rezko was forced into a life of crime because he couldn’t obtain health care insurance for his children.
Yecccchhh. How do the trolls crank out mindless drivel like that? It hurts to be that stupid.
My oh My, Gov. Hairspray, i’m falling out of my seat over that one. He is known as HelmetHead at our house. Politics in Illinois is soooooooo black, or is it bleak, ah, both!! I figure the only reason HelmetHead is closing prisons is cause he thinks if no cells are available, he won’t have to go.
Sad to say but that may be true. As with Clinton I Obama is facing a weak Republican. But then Obama has drawn somewhat less than half of the votes in a hotly contested Democratic race. He did not have the weight to break out; but even though most of these issues were known about him nothing really hurt him either. As we have seen H. Clinton did not get the coronation we were told by some many experts to expect. The Rezko story is low key or totally absent on the alphabet networks–I imagine millions haven’t seen it or tie it to Obama. The alphabet networks have all given glowing reports about Obama and creme puff interviews.
So now we wait. How many of H. Clinton’s loyalist really will not vote for Obama? Certainly not the numbers we hear today, those always change, but perhaps enough. And it’s a little over five months until the election and someone could stumble. Perhaps McCain.
Who knows, sharia law may be coming to a country near you. We could be the first country with a marxist jihad!
Given Obama’s assurances that (1) he’s a Christian, and (2) he’s a strong supporter of Israel, I’m struck by how many powerful Muslims he has been involved with and funded by in Illinois.
Maybe they will put him in the governors wing at Joliet.
My understanding is that 3 of the last 7 Illinois governors have resided there.
And the current Illinois governor is also likely to drop in.
Nice. The Arizona Republic buried this story on page 6 of the paper. Nice. One would think that a news agency would want voters to know who the candidates hang out with and do business with and commit crimes with. Meh, I guess I am wrong.