Category Archives: Chicago Tribune

Blagojevich trial defense request, Trial expected to last 3 to 4 months, Prosecution rested case Tuesday, Citizen Wells open thread, July 16, 2010

Blagojevich trial defense request, Trial expected to last 3 to 4 months, Prosecution rested case Tuesday

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”…Abraham Lincoln

The prosecution in the Rod Blagojevich trial rested their case on Tuesday, July 13, 2010. Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine and many other potential witnesses were not called. Subsequently, much of the corruption Blagojevich was involved in, as well as Obama, was not exposed. The defense team requested more time to prepare and were given until next Monday to resume the trial.

From the Chicago Tribune July 13, 2010.

“”At all times since the early stages of pretrial litigation in this case, the government asserted to the defense and the court that the government’s case would last approximately three to four months,” the defense filing said. “The government now indicates it will rest its case after just six weeks.””

Read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/blagojevich/ct-met-blagojevich-trial-0713-20100712,0,3451354.story

I warned of this before the trial. More on US Justice Department corruption to come.

Blagojevich trial, Defense requests delay, Trial moving too fast, Point revealed, Citizen Wells open thread, July 13, 2010

Blagojevich trial, Defense requests delay, Trial moving too fast, Point revealed

The Blagojevich defense team has requested a delay in the trial. I am in the middle of writing a multi part series on US Justice Department corruption, trying to hit a moving target, and the defense team helps make one of my points.

From the Chicago Tribune July 12, 2010.

“Blagojevich’s lawyers sought to delay the federal corruption trial for at least a week to prepare witnesses for a defense case that they had believed they wouldn’t be presenting until late August at the earliest.

Estimates of a sprawling trial that would last well into the fall have evaporated as the government has streamlined its case.

“At all times since the early stages of pretrial litigation in this case, the government asserted to the defense and the court that the government’s case would last approximately three to four months,” the defense filing said. “The government now indicates it will rest its case after just six weeks.””

Read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/blagojevich/ct-met-blagojevich-trial-0713-20100712,0,3451354.story

Blagojevich trial, Obama was protected, Blagojevich arrested after 2008 election, Blagojevich wiretap, Chicago press,

Blagojevich trial, Obama was protected, Blagojevich arrested after 2008 election

The Citizen Wells blog began presenting articles about Rod Blagojevich ties to Chicago and Illinois corruption early in 2008 and has done so ongoing. It was clear to anyone paying attention, especially to the Tony Rezko trial early in 2008 that Blagojevich was entrenched in corruption. With all the information available from court transcripts and other sources, the feds knew far more. Therefore the question began being asked by mid 2008, “when is Blagojevich going to be indicted”.  When Blagojevich was arrested on December 8, 2008, the big question became, why did Patrick Fitzgerald and the US Justice Dept. wait until after the election to arrest Blagojevich.

Consider the following:

April 29, 2008

“Strong charges about pay-to-play politics in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration have been hurled by prosecution star witness Stuart Levine in the federal corruption trial of the governor’s friend and fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
“Andy Martin says ‘retainer’ by Robert Blackwell, Jr. was classic Illinois ‘pay to play’ and may have been criminal behavior.”

“Robert Blackwell Jr., CEO and founder of Electronic Knowledge Interchange Inc., has been named to the transition team of Governor-elect Rod Blagojevich.”

Read more

May 1, 2008

“Maloof said Rezko told him to keep his name out of any grand jury testimony because prosecutors were “going to tie it back to [Illinois Gov. Rod] Blagojevich.””

“According to Maloof, Rezko said the three phones were “just in case somebody’s listening,” a remark Maloof took to mean that Rezko was worried about wiretaps.”

“Before the trial began, prosecutors identified Maloof as one of at least two people who made straw political contributions to candidates on Rezko’s behalf. One of the recipients of Maloof’s money was U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.”

Read more

May 14, 2008

“Obama supported the re-election of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose administration is embroiled in corruption probes.

EKI, a Blackwell company, gave $20,000 to Blagojevich.
Electronic Knowledge Interchange won $6 million in technology consulting and software development contracts. EKI did no state
work until after Blagojevich took office.”

Read more

August 28, 2008

“The Justice Department’s prosecution of Antoin “Tony” Rezko was always about prelude, never about climax. The jury’s conviction of Rezko Wednesday on 16 criminal counts is one more point on a long investigative arc — an arc now pointed directly at Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other of his associates.

That arc reaches beyond the horizon to points none of us can see. But prosecutor Christopher Niewoehner unequivocally — and forcefully — told the Rezko jurors during closing arguments where federal authorities now are concentrating: “This is a crime that involves the highest levels of power in Illinois.””

Read more

By August 28, 2008 we and most certainly federal prosecutors knew enough about Rod Blagojevich to indict him then.

September 29, 2008
“Here is a Chicago tribune story from Monday, September 29, 2008:

“Indict or impeach?
September 29, 2008
After what has happened in the last few days, it’s more likely that Gov. Rod Blagojevich will be indicted or impeached or both.

• The Tribune reported on Sunday that convicted political fixer Tony Rezko has talked to federal prosecutors and may cooperate in their investigation of the governor’s administration. At closing arguments in Rezko’s trial, a federal prosecutor told jurors that his crimes involved “the highest levels of power in Illinois.” Rezko has refused to help investigators—until, apparently, now.”

Read more

May 17, 2010

“These questions beg for an answer and we deserve one.
Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich indicted soon after the Rezko trial ended in June 2008? He was wreaking havoc on the citizens of Illinois.
Why was the arrest of Blagojevich delayed until December 2008, after the 2008 elections?
Why was prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald given this assignment by Barack Obama?”

Read more

From a Blagojevich wiretap introduced as evidence.

“DATE: 11/12/2008
TIME: 12:36 P.M.
ACTIVITY: Rod Blagojevich home line incoming call.
SESSION: 558
SPEAKERS:
BLAGOJEVICH: Rod Blagojevich
HARRIS: John Harris”

http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/hot/us_v_blagojevich_exhibits/2010_06_24/transcript_11_12_2008_1236pm.pdf

The Chicago press weren’t the only ones shielding Obama.

The question is, did Patrick Fitzgerald or the US Justice Dept. shield Obama?

Alonzo Monk testimony, Blagojevich trial update, June 10, 2010, Rezko began paying Blagojevich in 2004

Alonzo Monk testimony, Blagojevich trial update, June 10, 2010

From the Chicago Tribune June 10, 2010.

“Witness says Blagojevich urged silence about money”

“Monk testified Thursday that Blagojevich fundraiser Tony Rezko, currently awaiting sentencing for fraud and other charges, slipped him as much as $90,000 in cash when he was the governor’s chief of staff — typically $10,000 at a time stuffed in an envelope.

Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to trying to profit from his power to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama and squeezing people for campaign contributions. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 415 years in prison, though a judge would consider many factors. Blagojevich also could face fines totaling $6 million.

Monk has pleaded guilty to scheming to pressure a racetrack owner for a contribution and is testifying in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.”

“Monk said Rezko began paying him cash in 2004. At Monk’s wedding, Rezko’s present to Monk was $10,000 in cash and an offer to pay for a remodeling project at the newlyweds’ home. Thanks to the flow of cash, which Monk kept at home, he said he never had to withdraw money from the bank or use an ATM. ”
“Earlier Thursday, Monk testified about how Blagojevich put supporters and fundraisers on state boards that oversaw major business sectors, often at the urging of members of his inner circle. ”

Read more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/naperville/chi-ap-us-blagojevichtrial,0,391403.story

Blagojevich trial jury selection, June 5, 2010, Rod Blagojevich familiarity, Fact versus fiction, Media bias, Entertainment culture, Blagojevich indictment far bigger than selling senate seat

Blagojevich trial jury selection, June 5, 2010, Rod Blagojevich familiarity

Some of you may be weary of hearing about the Rod Blagojevich trial. Some of you may be wondering why Citizen Wells has spent so much energy attempting to provide the complete picture of Blagojevich and his involvement in Chicago and IL corruption over many years. Here are some of the main reasons.

  • We have a biased media that has misrepresented Blagojevich and his corruption ties.
  • We have an entertainment culture. We have less news coverage and more entertainment presented. Blagojevich played this card.
  • The Blagojevich indictment is far more complex than the alleged selling of the senate seat.
  • The timing of Blagojevich’s arrest and subsequent actions by the US Justice Dept and Obama Administration are highly suspect.
  • Blagojevich corruption is directly tied to Barack Obama.

In a perfect world, juries should know little about someone on trial. However, in this case, the indicted, impeached ex governor of IL, whose name was mentioned repeatedly over many weeks during the Rezko trial, during the presidential run of fellow Illinois resident and crony Obama, gives one cause for further concern.

From the Chicago Tribune June 5, 2010.

“Blagoje-who?
Despite ex-governor’s TV forays, some jury candidates don’t know much about him”

“One prospective juror for the corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich said her familiarity with the former governor was limited to TV wisecracks she heard from Jay Leno.

“He was a joke or something,” the woman said.
Another potential juror is a labor organizer who spent months in Minnesota in 2008 working on the U.S. Senate campaign of Democrat Al Franken. She too confessed that most of what she knew about the longtime Illinois chief executive could be summed up by his recent TV appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

Ever since Blagojevich’s arrest in December 2008, his legal troubles and grandstanding have been a subject of saturation news coverage as well as merciless lampooning from critics and comedians. Even so, a large share of those being sized up for the jury by U.S. District Judge James Zagel told him their understanding of the governor and his troubles was surface at best.

All of which goes to underscore a strangely symbiotic relationship between Illinois’ often ridiculed political culture and the very busy legal system aimed at rooting out corruption. Impartial juries require members who don’t know much about the defendants whose fate they will weigh. And it is surprisingly easy, even in the highest profile of cases, to find jurors who fit that description.”

“More typical were the comments of a female juror candidate identified during the proceedings as No. 119. The woman, who works in investment accounting, said she is an avid runner whose main source of printed information was the magazine Runners World.

Asked by Zagel if she kept up on the news, the woman said no.

“I don’t have time,” she explained. “I have two daughters, and we don’t have cable.””

Read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/blagojevich/ct-met-blagojevich-trial-0606-20100605,0,3779036.story?page=1

Blagojevich trial, May 29, 2010, Obama controls Justice Department, Blagojevich plea?, Obama is guilty of corruption, Chicago pay to play politics, Who will throw who under the bus?, Patrick Fitzgerald controlled?

Blagojevich trial, May 29, 2010, Obama controls Justice Department, Blagojevich plea?

“We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.”… “1984″ by George Orwell

 

Citizen Wells May 11, 2010
“I have given this much thought. Given the amount of evidence, the number of witnesses, the suicides and other questionable deaths of those connected to Blagojevich and ultimately Obama. Given the power Obama has over the Justice Department. Given the fact that the Blagojevich team seems desperate to delay the trial. I believe that it is highly likely that Blagojevich may cop a plea.

The question remains.

Who will throw who under the bus?”

Read more

Citizen Wells, yesterday, May 28, 2010
“Obama administration opposes Blagojevich request to delay corruption trial”

“The Obama administration says the Supreme Court should let the corruption trial of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich move forward.

Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal told the high court on Friday that he sees no reason for a delay.”

Read more

Extent of corruption and media coverup

“We have a trial, a story, about Rod Blagojevich, his numerous corrupt cronies including Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, Barack Obama and a host of others involved in long time crime and corruption in Chicago and IL. We have a story, far bigger and more far reaching than Watergate. We have a story including businessmen, attorneys, state and local officials, the Governor of Illinois, the occupant of the White House and his long time associates, and it is barely being covered by the mainstream media. And worse than that, it is being covered up. Even our last refuge of information access, the internet, is being manipulated.”

Read more

Is this part of the setup?

“These questions beg for an answer and we deserve one.
Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich indicted soon after the Rezko trial ended in June 2008? He was wreaking havoc on the citizens of Illinois.
Why was the arrest of Blagojevich delayed until December 2008, after the 2008 elections?
Why was prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald given this assignment by Barack Obama?
August 5, 2009
“I was preparing a new article, a more detailed version of an earlier article about Obama’s role in rigging the Illinois Health Planning Facilities Board (you know, the board mentioned in the indictments of Rezko, Levine, Weinstein, Blagojevich, et al). The events leading up to the Blagojevich trial are dragging on in typical fashion and I did not want the American public to forget about Obama’s strong ties to Chicago corruption. The Citizen Wells blog has for many months stated that Obama should be indicted next. The question was, would Patrick Fitzgerald do his duty or be controlled by the Obama camp.

Now we have the answer.”

“At the relevant time period, the Planning Board consisted of nine individuals. State law required an entity seeking to build a hospital,
medical office building, or other medical facility in Illinois to obtain a permit, known as a “Certificate of Need” (“CON”), from the Planning Board prior to beginning construction.”
Why was the above left out of the Indictment?

 
Why is this not being shouted from the rooftops?

“At the relevant time period, the Planning Board consisted of nine individuals.”

The following sentence is one of the clearest connections of Obama to the rigging of the Planning Board. Obama was chairman of the IL Senate committee that changed the number of members from 15 to 9.”

Read more

Why would the Obama administration want to get this over quickly?
Citizen Wells and many other internet sites are presenting the truth about Blagojevich and his ties to long time corruption in Chicago and IL and his ties to

Obama. This has struck a nerve. The Obama camp in cooperation with entities like Google have been trying to hide these stories.
We have a synergy coming into play.

  • Blagojevich’s cocky, overconfident attitude.
  • The Obama camp wanting this put to rest, oversimplified and not implicating Obama in the corruption.
  • The US Justice Department. Will they do their job or is the Obama Administration calling all of the shots.

I believe that Blagojevich will plead guilty. I believe that he has no choice.
If Rod Blagojevich pleads guilty and gets a light sentence, you will know that Obama has controlled this and that there is no justice. No Justice Dept.

Blagojevich trial, Justice Stevens asks prosecutors to respond, Blagojevich delay request, May 21, 2010

Blagojevich trial, Justice Stevens asks prosecutors to respond

From the Chicago Tribune May 21, 2010.

“Justice Stevens asks prosecutors to respond to Blagojevich request to delay corruption trial”

“U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens gave federal prosecutors one week to respond to ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s request to delay his corruption trial.

Stevens on Friday told the government to respond by May 28. The trial of Blagojevich and his brother, Robert Blagojevich, is scheduled to begin June 3.”

“Requests to delay the trial already were denied by the trial judge and the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

Read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-ap-il–blagojevich-corruptioncase,0,7570538.story

Blagojevich Trial, Justice John Paul Stevens, Petition to postpone trial in Steven’s chambers, Blagojevich defense team seeking to delay trial

Blagojevich Trial, Justice John Paul Stevens, Petition to postpone trial

From the Chicago Tribune May 20, 2010.

“Blagojevich’s lawyers ask Supreme Court to delay trial”

“Representatives of the court confirmed Thursday that the former Illinois governor’s petition to postpone the June 3 trial had been delivered to the chambers of Justice John Paul Stevens.

Lawyers for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich have taken their bid to delay the start of his corruption trial to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Blagojevich’s defense team is seeking to delay the trial until after the high court rules on the constitutionality of the “honest services” fraud law by the end of June. Justices have been critical of the law as too ambiguous.”

Read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-blagojevich-appeal-20100520,0,7882766.story

Media Fail, MediaFail.com, Citizen Wells fails Media Fail, Obama birth certificate, Information suppression, Obama thugs, 1984, Big brother

Media Fail, MediaFail.com, Citizen Wells fails Media Fail, Obama birth certificate

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”
“The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had
actually been destroyed. For how could you establish, even
the most obvious fact when there existed no record outside
your own memory?”…George Orwell, “1984?

I received an email today about Media Fail, a website that is devoted to “Expose the worst of American media.
Find it. Post it. Fail it. ”

I signed up at MediaFail.com and then posted two commemts about failings of the mainstream media.

1 fail
 
Chicago Tribune, O’Reilly,MSM FAIL: Blagojevich trial downplayed, misrepresented (wordpress.com)
” He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to sell President Barack Obama’s old senate seat” The indictment is 113 pages and covers corruption involving Blagojevich and his cronies going back many years. Read more at Citizen Wells.
Comments Posted by citizenwells
2 fails
 
MSM, Factcheck.org FAIL: Obama birth certificate, COLB, college records (wordpress.com)
Obama has employed a legion of private and government attorneys to avoid presenting a legitimate birth certificate and college records. That is the real question not being asked by the mainstream media, including Fox. Video explains more.
Comments (1) Posted by citizenwells

Links to the comments:

http://mediafail.com/fails/249

 http://mediafail.com/fails/250

A few minutes ago, a commenter on this blog indicated that the second comment, about the Obama birth certificate could not be accessed. I tried to access it and got the following response:

Access denied

You are not allowed to view this.

The following is from the MediaFail.com website:

“What is mediaFAIL?
Every day, we read and watch “news” that favors sensation over substance. Meaningless sideshows can dominate the news cycle for days, blocking out real issues of public concern. Worse, what often passes for reporting is badly sourced, unaccountable and tainted by commercial interests and trivia.
It’s time to FAIL a failing media.
MediaFAIL is a user-powered project of Free Press that exposes the worst in American media. Just find a link, post it, fail it, and share it with friends. The top-rated submissions will migrate to the site’s front page for all the world to see.
We don’t just want to give the media a failing grade — we want it to pass. That’s why we’re featuring links to actions on important campaigns by Free Press and our allies, so that you can help build a better media system.
Submitting a link and voting are simple. Here’s how to start:
Sign up for an account
Find and submit a link to an example of terrible reporting (maybe something like this, about two news outlets reporting the exact same story).
Share your submitted “fail” with your friends via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.
Vote on other fails that you find especially bad.
Post a comment or two.
Repeat!
So get failing — and help fix the media.
 
 
 
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Based on my brief experience with Media Fail, I am compelled to

Fail

MediaFail.com

Blagojevich trial, Judge James Zagel, Blagojevich trial judge, Money to Burn, Zagel novel, Chicago legal community, State Cabinet posts

Blagojevich trial, Judge James Zagel, Blagojevich trial judge

From the Chicago Tribune May 17, 2010.

“Blagojevich trial judge regarded as smart, unflappable”

“Do you ever wonder what spins through a judge’s head while lawyers and witnesses drone on endlessly for days and weeks at trial?

In the case of U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who is scheduled to preside over the sweeping corruption trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a little more than two weeks, there’s a good chance those thoughts sometimes drift to grandly larcenous fantasies.

How else to explain “Money to Burn,” the well-received 2002 novel penned by Zagel about a federal judge who masterminds an audacious heist at the super-secure Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago? (Spoiler alert: The judge gets away with millions of dollars.)

Zagel may have an active imagination, but his broad list of admirers in Chicago’s legal community view that as just another example of why he is regarded as one of the smartest and most unflappable jurists at the federal courthouse.
“He is definitely one of those people who can do the job well with half of his attention,” veteran lawyer Joel Bertocchi said of Zagel, who has had parts in two Hollywood movies and whose broad interests range from jazz to target shooting with court security officers.

At 69, and with more than two decades on the federal bench, Zagel boasts a resume to qualify him as one of the most interesting men in Chicago. He helped prosecute mass murderer Richard Speck, twice held state Cabinet posts and was once married to TV investigative reporter Pam Zekman.

As a jurist, he also moonlights on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that decides whether to issue warrants for electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects.

In 1965, after graduating from the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School, Zagel joined the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, where he helped gain the conviction of Speck, the notorious killer of eight student nurses on the city’s Southeast Side.

From 1970 to 1977, Zagel ran the criminal division of the Illinois attorney general’s office. One of his assistants was Jayne Carr, who would later marry Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson. As a colleague, Jayne Thompson said, Zagel was hard-driving, meticulous with the law and possessed of an “encyclopedic memory.”

“He can sit down and write a legal pleading and fill in the citations, including the page numbers, without bringing out a book,” she recalled.

Zagel eventually went to work in Thompson’s administration, first as director of the Department of Revenue and then as head of what was then known as the Department of Law Enforcement.”

“Zagel was appointed to the federal bench in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and while his law enforcement background has given him a reputation for leaning toward the government’s view, he is widely viewed by members of the defense bar as predictable and fair.”

“Halprin, who represented mob boss Joey “the Clown” Lombardo, said Zagel did a good job managing a case with colorful lawyers in a circuslike atmosphere — a climate likely to be repeated in the Blagojevich case, which features a star defendant and legal team with flairs for the dramatic.”

“In 2008, Zagel was appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to a seven-year term on the intelligence court.”

“The judge, said Bertocchi, “will want the result of this trial to speak well of the legal system.””

Read more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-blagojevich-trial-judge-profil20100517,0,4269105.story