Prosecutors have played a second recording dealing with the solicitation of a $100,000 contribution from race track owner John Johnston.
On this Nov. 14, 2008 tape, Lon Monk and Robert Blagojevich are again talking about the status of contribution.
"(Johnston) said, 'Tell the big guy I'm good for it. I'm just figuring out which accounts to pull the checks from,'" Monk says on the tape.
But it sounds like Monk is trying to keep Robert Blagojevich in the dark about any wrongdoing.
Monk tells Robert that the timing of the contribution could give the false appearance of a pay-to-play arrangement -- that is, that Johnston's cash could be "buying" him an extension of the subsidies for the horse racing industry.
"There's absolutely no connection between the two," Monk tells Robert on the tape. "There's a legislative issue that I don't want to get in the way."
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked Monk if he did, indeed, think there was a connection between the contribution and the bill.
"Yeah," Monk answered. "There could be."
But Monk didn't want Robert to know that.
"I didn't want him to think that," Monk said. "I had seen Rod try to have discussions with Rob that did not include state action. He tried to keep him out of that area."
What do you suppose ever gave these guys the idea that Johnston would come up with 100Gs?
Could it be that Johnston had already paid three or four times that amount to the state legislature --Republicans and Democrats..
Enter: "Racing Association" in this search box:
http://www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ContributionsSearchByAllContributions.aspx
So far it look's pretty good for Robert...It's astounding to me that Milorad dragged his brother into this, was he the only one in Illinois who didn't know he was under investigation by the fed's???