Obama Bomb Dropped In Rezko Trial

Stuart Levine, the government's star witness in the Chicago political corruption trial of Tony Rezko, who until recently was one of Sen. Barack Obama's closest friends, testified that Obama and his wife attended a reception at Rezko's home on April 3, 2004 in honor of Nadhmi Auchi, a corrupt, wealthy Iraqi businessman. An earlier Sun-Times report tied a $3.5 million wire transfer in 2005 from Auchi to Rezko within a month of the time Rezko helped out Obama with the purchase of his South Side mansion. Rezko's failure to report that loan resulted in his original arrest by federal authorities. According to Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak, Obama has denied ever reaching out to Auchi or meeting him in person. The Sun-Times questioned how Auchi could have obtained permission to travel to Chicago in 2004 due to his earlier conviction by French authorities in connection with the Elf scandal, which has been described as the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since World War II.

Many in the mainstream media have ignored Obama's ties to Rezko, a political fixer in Illinois politics and the politically-corrupt administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. In addition to Rezko's ongoing federal corruption trial, which has exposed deep corruption within the Illinois governor's administration, the Sun-Times reveals today that the governor is stonewalling public records requests by the media concerning questionable pardons he has granted recently. And the state auditor may probe how a $1 million grant to help rebuild a fire-ravaged church in Chicago's South Side wound up in the hands of a private school tied to the Rev. Jesse Jackson. An administrator at that school was a recipient of one of Gov. Blagojevich's recent pardons. The state auditor's probe is backed by House Speaker Mike Madigan, a Democrat and frequent critic of the corrupt governor.