Blago scandal: Rahm Emanuel and Jesse Jackson Jr face new revelations: Timesonline

[Seabee1973]

I just hope that Obama doesnt remove the Attorney general and support him like he did when he was bringing up charges against that republican a few years ago

[Zguy28]

This whole story is nothing but speculation and insinuation.

When you don't have anything new to report, why not just make up news?

[TrumanB]

Oooooh, so now the scandal escalates to "Obama preformed a perfectly legal, honest, open, public real estate transaction, at market prices, with someone who, at the time, might have done something wrong."

Problem is those words "perfectly legal, honest, open, public real estate transaction, at market prices".

I assume that at least some of the 9/11 hijackers rented apartments. That doesn't make their landlords terrorists. All their landlords did (in my hypothetical) was to perform a routine financial transaction, publicly, at market prices.

If you want to claim it's a scandal, then show that Obama received something that he didn't pay for.

You can keep throwing out "market price" all you want. The fact is Obama paid $300,000 below the asking price, a 20% discount. Yet, the adjacent property purchased by Rezko from the same seller had a 0% discount. But, if it makes you feel better to call what Obama paid a "market price", then have at it.

[SUSkinsFan]

You can keep throwing out "market price" all you want. The fact is Obama paid $300,000 below the asking price, a 20% discount. Yet, the adjacent property purchased by Rezko from the same seller had a 0% discount. But, if it makes you feel better to call what Obama paid a "market price", then have at it.

i could ask $1,000,000 for my house. That doesn't mean it's worth it. All I have to do is find someone that is willing to pay that amount.

[aREDSKIN]

Oooooh, so now the scandal escalates to "Obama preformed a perfectly legal, honest, open, public real estate transaction, at market prices, with someone who, at the time, might have done something wrong."

Problem is those words "perfectly legal, honest, open, public real estate transaction, at market prices".

I assume that at least some of the 9/11 hijackers rented apartments. That doesn't make their landlords terrorists. All their landlords did (in my hypothetical) was to perform a routine financial transaction, publicly, at market prices.

If you want to claim it's a scandal, then show that Obama received something that he didn't pay for.

Larry you're are so full of it. According to cook county property records Obama is not even the OWNER of the property.

Listed in the Cook County Records Property Tax Assessments as “owner” of Obama’s home isn’t the President-elect, nor his wife, but attorney William Miceli. The same attorney cited as a source by the Washington Post and Chicago Sun-Times regarding Obama’s ties to Tony Rezko. Miceli was Obama’s former supervisor at the Davis Law firm that represented Rezko.

ALSO at DBKP: Obama Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Chicago Home Mortgage $903,000 over Legal Limit

5046 South Greenwood, Chicago Illinois

The Cook County property tax assessment information lists William Miceli as the “owner” of 5046 South Greenwood, the recording date, 6/21/2005, in the amount of $1,650,000. The borrower is listed as Northern Trust Company.

William Miceli is a partner at the Chicago law firm, Miner, Barnhill, and Galland, formerly Davis, Miner, Barnhill, and Galland, when Allison S. Davis headed the firm. Miceli’s website lists his current areas of expertise: “not-for-profit corporations, urban renewal transactions, federally qualified health centers, and social service organizations”. Obama was employed by the firm from 1993-2002 with Miceli as his supervisor.

In April, 2007, the Chicago Sun-Times interviewed Obama’s campaign about his relationship with Tony Rezko and Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp.

According to the Sun-Times, Tony Rezko was a client of Obama’s firm and a “close personal friend” and “business partner” of Allison S. Davis. According to Obama and his campaign, Rezko was a longtime friend and campaign donor during Obama’s Congressional and Senate campaigns.

Central Woodlawn Project

The Sun-Times interview centered on a specific deal made by Rezmar, the Central Woodlawn Project, with Obama’s law firm handling the legal issues. The Sun-Times wanted to know who Obama reported to in his firm while working on the deal:

Sun-Times question: Please explain what legal work the senator performed on each of those Rezmar projects. I have a copy of a legal bill showing Sen. Obama worked on the Central Woodlawn project. Please include the number of hours he spent on each Rezmar deal, the dates he worked on those deals, and to whom he reported at the firm, whether that was Allison Davis and/or William Micelli.

Obama campaign answer: Senator Obama worked on several projects in which the firm’s principal client was a not-for-profit corporation. The projects entailed negotiations between the firm’s primary not-for-profit client and the Rezmar-related entity that served as co-general partner or co-venturer of the not-for-profit.

Once the negotiations between the not-for-profit and Rezmar-related entity were completed, the firm represented the combined entity, usually an Illinois limited partnership or Illinois limited-liability company.

The Senator, relatively inexperienced in this kind of work, was assigned to tasks appropriate for a junior lawyer. These tasks would have included reviewing documents, collecting corporate organizational documents, and drafting corporate resolutions. The Senator reported primarily to former partner Allison Davis and occasionally to William Miceli.

Allison Davis’ company, American Housing Partners, invested $25,000 in the Central Woodlawn Project. The Obama Campaign stated that Obama had no knowledge of a business relationship between Davis and Rezko’s firm, Rezmar.

On January 23, 2008, the Washington Post published an article on the Obama-Rezko ties, and cited Miceli as a source:

During the same period, Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, attended Harvard Law School and then moved back to Chicago. In 1993, he became an associate lawyer with a small Chicago firm, Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Galland. It was during this time that he first became involved with a real estate developer named Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who was subsequently indicted on charges of fraud, extortion and money laundering and will go on trial on Feb. 25.

William Miceli, Obama’s supervisor at the law firm, said the firm represented the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a nonprofit group that redeveloped a run-down property on Chicago’s South Side with Rezko. He called Clinton’s assertion that Obama represented Rezko in a slum landlord business “categorically untrue.”

“He was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review,” said Miceli, adding that Obama did what he was told by the firm. According to Miceli, that was the only time Obama worked on a Rezko-related project while at the law firm.

What’s interesting to note is that the person the Washington Post interviewed regarding the Rezko-Obama ties, William Miceli, is the same person who is listed as the “owner” of Obama’s Chicago Greenwood home.

The Obama-Biden campaign lifted part of the Wa-Po piece and posted it in the “Fact Check” portion of their website:

Washington Post Fact Check: “Investigations By Chicago Newspapers Have Not Produced Evidence That [Obama] Represented Rezko In A Slum Landlord Business.” The Washington Post reported, “William Miceli, Obama’s supervisor at the law firm, said the firm represented the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a nonprofit group that redeveloped a run-down property on Chicago’s South Side with Rezko. He called Clinton’s assertion that Obama represented Rezko in a slum landlord business ‘categorically untrue. He was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review,’ said Miceli, adding that Obama did what he was told by the firm. According to Miceli, that was the only time Obama worked on a Rezko-related project while at the law firm…But investigations by Chicago newspapers have not produced evidence that he represented Rezko in a slum landlord business. What has been demonstrated so far is that he did some due diligence legal work for a joint venture between Rezko and a Chicago nonprofit. Two Pinocchios for Clinton.” [Washington Post, 1/22/08]

Miceli claimed that Obama was a “very junior lawyer”, who was only responsible for “basic due diligence” and “document review”. Yet in 1994, Obama, representing his firm, defended Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation against a lawsuit filed by the city of Chicago.

On January 23, a second Sun-Times Obama-Rezko ties story appeared regarding Obama’s ties to Rezko, once again citing Miceli as a source:

One of the firm’s not-for-profit clients — the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., co-founded by Obama’s then-boss Allison Davis — was partners with Rezko’s company in a 1995 deal to convert an abandoned nursing home at 61st and Drexel into low-income apartments. Altogether, Obama spent 32 hours on the project, according to the firm. Only five hours of that came after Rezko and WPIC became partners, the firm says. The rest of the future senator’s time was helping WPIC strike the deal with Rezko. Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp., also partnered with the firm’s clients in four later deals — none of which involved Obama, according to the firm. In each deal, Rezmar “made the decisions for the joint venture,” says William Miceli, an attorney with the firm.

On November 15, Obama picked Valerie Jarrett as his White House Senior Advisor. Jarret was “outed” by Judicial Watch as “member of the board of directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents linking Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to Barack Obama and the co-chairman of the President-Elect’s transition team, to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Rezko and Allison Davis. (Davis is also Obama’s former boss.) Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.

–Chicago Sun Times

While Miceli is listed by the Cook County Clerk’s Office as “owner” of Obama’s Greenwood home, Miceli was used as a source by both the Chicago Sun-Times and Washington Post where Miceli claimed Obama had a limited role in representing Rezko at the Davis Law Firm.

Obama has repeatedly asserted his only ties to Rezko were a long standing friendship. Rezko and his wife Rita were involved in the Obama’s successful attempt to buy the Greenwood property.

On the same day that Obama closed on the Greenwood property in 2005, the lot next door sold to Tony Rezko’s wife in the amount of $625,000. Six months later Obama paid $104,500 for a portion of the lot.

According to the Washington Times, the 9,090-square-foot vacant parcel was initially appraised at $625,000 by Adams Appraisal. When Obama and his wife signed an agreement to buy a 10 X 150 ft. strip of land from the Rezko vacant parcel, a reappraisal was ordered by Mutual Bank Corp.

A reappraisal done by Kenneth J. Connor, a real estate and commercial credit analyst at the Mutual Bank Corp, found the property should not have been valued higher than $500,000. When a grand jury issued a subpeona to Mutual Bank for Rezko’s wife’s records, Connor discovered that the bank had switched his reappraisal with the higher appraisal of $625,000. Connor now claims that he was fired when he “blew the whistle”:

“Connor’s internal whistle-blowing activity at Mutual Bank implicates Mutual Bank and the potentially guilty officers thereof to prosecution under federal and Illinois statutes,” said the complaint, filed by attorney Glenn R. Gaffney.

The complaint said Mutual Bank officials could be guilty of making false statements, willfully overvaluing property, bank fraud, witness retaliation, willful violation of a lawful subpoena, FDIC violations, and state banking regulations.

Rita Rezko sold the lot in 2007 for $575,000.

It’s a mystery as to why William Miceli is listed by the Cook County Clerk’s office as the owner of Obama’s Chicago Greenwood home. Miceli, as “owner” is directly responsible for paying the assessed property taxes. In 2006, the property tax was assessed at $22,162.47.

http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2008/12/obamas-rezko-ties-cook-county-clerks-office-lists-attorney-as-owner-of-obama-chicago-home/

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/5046_Greenwood_AV_Lexus.pdf

[Cooked Crack]

Blago has another career as a rap artist

I just hope that Obama doesnt remove the Attorney general and support him like he did when he was bringing up charges against that republican a few years ago

He already said he wouldn't remove him earlier this year.

[alexey]

Obama came out of nowhere and became a POTUS. Of course he had to interact with all kinds of power players on his way up. It takes a man of rare ability to be able to do that while sticking to his ideals and remaining so dang clean.

[Larry]

You can keep throwing out "market price" all you want. The fact is Obama paid $300,000 below the asking price, a 20% discount. Yet, the adjacent property purchased by Rezko from the same seller had a 0% discount. But, if it makes you feel better to call what Obama paid a "market price", then have at it.

He paid 300K below the asking price, for a piece of property that had been on the market for some time. And he did so after agreeing to a zoning change which your own site says lowered the value of the property.

[Larry]

Larry you're are so full of it.

I'd only be full of it if I were swallowing what you're so desperately shoveling.

According to cook county property records Obama is not even the OWNER of the property.

So now your point is that the scandal you're attempting to hang on Obama doesn't even involve Obama?

Just out of curiosity, who paid for the property?

[IHOPSkins]

UPDATE:

The Real Story Behind the Rushed Blagojevich Bust: How the Feds Are Frustrated by Losing (Maybe) Half of Their Case

....Members of Fitzgerald’s team are livid the scheme didn’t advance, at least for a little longer, according to some people close to Fitzgerald’s office. Why? Because had the plot unfolded, they might have had an opportunity most feds can only dream of: A chance to catch the sale of a Senate seat on tape, including the sellers and the buyers.

The precise timing of Tuesday’s dramatic, pre-dawn arrest was not dictated by Fitzgerald, nor was it dictated by the pace of Blagojevich’s alleged “crime spree.” It was dictated by the Chicago Tribune.....

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/12/14/the-real-story-behind-the-rushed-blagojevich-bust-how-the-feds-are-frustrated-by-losing-maybe-half-of-their-case/

[Thiebear]

Another Newspaper ruins a real investigation...

[Larry]

UPDATE:

Certainly looks plausible. There's a lot of assumptions about things that might have happened in the future. But it seems to fit with the details they published.

[IHOPSkins]

Another Newspaper ruins a real investigation...

The Issue here is pretty big......You have to wonder if political pressure was not involved in ending the investigation

If at least one "Buyer" doesn't get nailed I will assume the above

[Passepartout]

Makes them both look bad in the investigation!

[IHOPSkins]

So maybe Blago isn't leaving just yet:

Resignation Is Rumored; Response Is a Firm ‘No’

Not long after the Illinois attorney general, Lisa Madigan, told a national television audience that Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was thinking of possibly resigning here on Monday, the governor’s spokesman broke some news of his own.....

....“He has no plans of resigning today or tomorrow,” Mr. Guerrero said on Sunday."...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/us/politics/15illinois.html?_r=1&ref=politics

[Larry]

The Issue here is pretty big......You have to wonder if political pressure was not involved in ending the investigation

No, I don't have to.

See, in order to have a theory that says that, say, Jesse, (I'm using him as an example of any hypothetical Illinois politician), ordered the Tribune to kill the investigation, then you have to assume that

a) Jesse knew about the investigation.

Jesse knew that the Trib knew about the investigation, and was sitting on the story.

c) The Trib does what Jesse tells them to do.

Unfortunately, if Jesse knows that Blago is being tapped, then Jesse simply stays the Dallas away from Blago, and waits for The Highest Bidder (who is also Jesse's biggest rival for The Seat) to get busted.

(Or, if he thinks he's clever, he contacts Blago. Personally, on a phone that he knows it being recorded. Waits for Blago to demand a bribe. Acts shocked. Refuses. He's insulted that Blago would even imply such a thing. Then he calls the Feds and 'tips them off' (to something that he knows they're already investigating, anyway.) Now Jesse's on the Feds tape acting honest, and it's on record that Jesse called the cops.)

See, if Jesse ordered the Trib to kill the investigation, then Jesse knew about the investigation. And if he knew about it, then it's not a threat to him.

-----

There are lots of possible reasons why the Trib runs the story. For example, maybe they thought that somebody else was going to publish it before they did.

But "they killed it because a Chicago politician wanted it killed" doesn't make sense.

[IHOPSkins]

No, I don't have to...........But "they killed it because a Chicago politician wanted it killed" doesn't make sense.

Sure you do

You even said there is plenty we have not heard

Maybe someone at the FBI wanted it stopped?

To say its not possible is wrong at this point

And

Why not put more pressure on the paper not to release the story...

"At Fitzgerald’s request, the paper had been holding back a story since October detailing how a confidante of Blagojevich was cooperating with his office."

"But editors decided to publish the story on Friday, Dec. 5, ending the Tribune’s own cooperation deal with the prosecutor."

What?...

interfering with an ongoing investigation that was planning on collecting MORE INFORMATION

This story is only in Chapter 3

[Predicto]

You can keep throwing out "market price" all you want. The fact is Obama paid $300,000 below the asking price, a 20% discount. Yet, the adjacent property purchased by Rezko from the same seller had a 0% discount. But, if it makes you feel better to call what Obama paid a "market price", then have at it.

If that asking price was accurate, why didn't someone else buy it before Obama stepped in? :whoknows:

[Larry]

Sure you do

You even said there is plenty we have not heard

Maybe someone at the FBI wanted it stopped?

To say its not possible is wrong at this point

I said:

But "they killed it because a Chicago politician wanted it killed" doesn't make sense.

(I know you saw it, because you quoted me.)

Your response was to come up with a different theory, and claim that therefore, I have to believe your first one?

[81artmonk]

Huh, isn't it predictable that those vaporous "associations" that mattered to the most partisan of Kool Aid drinkers, (and nobody else), still matter to those same Kool Aid drinkers, (and nobody else)?

Exactly how?? He had associations with this guy and now it's coming back to bite him and those he is picking in the butt.

The fact is, he has associated with too many shady people in his past. If you think this is the only scandal he'll have, just wait. I'm sure there are more waiting in the wings.

You don't sleep with dogs and not end up with fleas, unless of course your a clinton

[81artmonk]

But, supposedly, these are "loose" associations. :doh:

Yeah, I know, funny isn't it?

[TrumanB]

Exactly how?? He had associations with this guy and now it's coming back to bite him and those he is picking in the butt.

The fact is, he has associated with too many shady people in his past. If you think this is the only scandal he'll have, just wait. I'm sure there are more waiting in the wings.

You don't sleep with dogs and not end up with fleas, unless of course your a clinton

It is humorous how the left downplays all of Obama's shady "associations". His relationship to Tony Rezko, who is a hub in the wheel of Chicago/Illinois politics, is downplayed. Rezko was a close friend, associate, and major contributor to Obama's political career, as well to Gov Blago's career. When all those videos and statements surfaced about Rev. Wright, Obama and his supporters downplayed their 20 year relationship, even though Wright baptized his children and performed his marriage ceremony.

At some point, you would think these "associations" would catch up to him. But I guess it's nearly impossible when you have the MSM falling all over you.

[alexey]

At some point, you would think these "associations" would catch up to him. But I guess it's nearly impossible when you have the MSM falling all over you.

You know the real reason why these associations are not catching up to Obama, but you don't like it.

[TrumanB]

You know the real reason why these associations are not catching up to Obama, but you don't like it.

Because he's the messiah and therefore cannot sin?

[81artmonk]

You know the real reason why these associations are not catching up to Obama, but you don't like it.

What do you mean aren't catching up to him?? It's jsut started with this Blago guy.

He isn't even president yet and his past associations are causing scandal with his appointments.

What people are missing in all this, is that if this guy(obama) is above the frey, than why is everyone he has been associated with have some shady past??

It's like I posted before, you don't lie down with dogs and not wake up with fleas. It's jsut a matter of time.