Obama's Rezko ties kept under seal
In January, the Sun-Times re****ted that a ****tion of the
Tony Rezko case led to Barak Obama's campaign fund.
Obama isn't accused of doing anything wrong. But
Rezko allegedly used straw donors to kick into Obama's
campaign fund during his runs for the U.S. Senate and
U.S. House of Representatives.
While none of that came out at trial, today, for the first
time, a filing recently unsealed shows the government's
initial intent to call witnesses about that aspect of the
case. The judge in the case, Amy St. Eve, ruled that the
prosecution could bring up Obama's name. But they
never did. And references to Obama were not only kept
out of the trial during his run for the primary -- it was
kept under seal. Until today.
The filing indicates that the prosecution wanted
witnesses to talk about Rezko's prowess as an Obama
fund-raiser and his influence in getting two others --
Joseph Aramanda and Semir Sirazi -- to donate Rezko
money to Obama's campaigns in their names. The
money kicked into Obama's campaigns came from an
illicit kickback scheme. Obama has since donated that
money to charity.
