From a White House briefing today with Robert Gibbs.
Q Tom Balanoff is a local labor leader in Chicago and in testimony today at the Blagojevich trial he talks about a phone call that he got from Barack Obama on Monday evening before the Tuesday election, at which he quotes Mr. Obama as saying that he thinks Valerie Jarrett should be a United States senator, that she fits the criteria; "I would prefer that she remain working for President Obama, but she does want to be Senator." And Balanoff said he told the soon-to-be President, "I said, 'Thank you, I'm going to reach out to Governor Blagojevich with that.'" Did the President make that phone call?
MR. GIBBS: You're telling me about this testimony. I'm not going to get into commenting on obviously an ongoing trial. And I have had not had an opportunity to see that.
Q But you've said before that the President did not get involved with the suggestions or the conversations with Blagojevich.
MR. GIBBS: Ann, I'm just not going to get into commenting on an ongoing trial.
After a break, Prosecutor Reid Schar asked union leader Tom Balanoff, who said his Service Employees International Union supported Rod Blagojevich, whether he would
still support Blagojevich today.
"Would you have endorsed him if you knew what you knew now?" Schar asked.
Balanoff: "No."
Schar, a bit worked up: "Is it fair to say he isn't what you thought he was?"
Objection sustained.
Defense lawyer Sheldon Sorosky crosses Tom Balanoff again. Balanoff says he couldn't think of an issue the union wanted that Blagojevich didn't support.
"So the governor clearly had integrity on supporting the issues of the working people, did he not?" Sorosky asked.
That's sustained.
Sorosky finally asks Balanoff if Blagojevich ever explicitly told him that he wanted a 501 (c) 4 organization in exchange for Jarrett's appointment.
"He never said those exact words," Balanoff said.
Sorosky tries pressing him but doesn't seem to get the answer he was hoping for.
Balanoff: "He said that if he could get $10, $15, $20 million in this 501(c)4, that our Senator Valerie Jarrett could go about her job."
With that, Balanoff's testimony concludes. It was a brisk ending for a major prosecution witness.
Now we are between witnesses where we are listening to a new recording where Rod and Patt Blagojevich discuss the four Senate seat candidates President-Elect Obama had endorsed.
In cross examination, union leader Tom Balanoff goes over some similar testimony with defense lawyer Shelly Sorosky.
Balanoff reiterates his call from President Obama the night before the 2008 Presidential election.
"Valerie Jarrett then told you she was interested in the Senate seat?" Sorosky asked.
Balanoff agrees.
"You then had certain marching orders?" Sorosky asks.
"I would not call them marching orders," Balanoff said.
"You had a job?" Sorosky asks.
"I wouldn't call it a job." Balanoff stands firm.
"You were so disinclined to help Valerie Jarrett that you called up Gov. Blagojevich to set up a meeting?" Sorosky asks, getting a gentle rebuffing from Judge Zagel asking him not to be sarcastic.
Sorosky presses Balanoff on whether Blagojevich explicitly said he'd appoint Jarrett in exchange for a cabinet appointment.
Balanoff begins to say that's his understanding before Sorosky cuts him off.
Union leader Tom Balanoff testifies to a couple of other spicy political discussions he had with the then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Balanoff testified that Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a friend to then President-Elect Barack Obama, raised himself as a possibility for Blagojevich to appoint.
In a Nov. 24th meeting, Balanoff raises the point to Blagojevich.
Blagojevich bristled, he testified.
"That mother f-----, I wouldn't do s--- for him. Every chance he got he took a shot at me," Blagojevich said, according to Balanoff.
Giannoulias is now the Democratic nominee running for Senate. He was subpoenaed by the defense to testify in this case.
In the same meeting, Balanoff said he brought up the possibility of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky's appointment to the Senate.
Nope.
Blagojevich: "If she had any ancestors who came over on slave ships she'd be fine."
Top union leader Thomas Balanoff said he was at dinner the night before the November Presidential election when he got a call that was blocked.
So he didn't take it.
Later he listened to his messages: "I walked outside, listened to it and it was from President Obama," Balanoff said.
"Tom, this is Barack, give me a call," the soon-to-be President-Elect said on the message.
After Balanoff sent word through an Obama aide to call him back, Obama returned his call later that night.
"Tom, i want to talk to you with regard to the Senate seat," Obama told him.
Balanoff said Obama said he had two criteria: someone who was good for the citizens of Illinois and could be elected in 2010.
Obama said he wasn't publicly coming out in support of anyone but he believed Valerie Jarrett would fit the bill.
"I would much prefer she (remain in the White House) but she does want to be Senator and she does meet those two criteria," Balanoff said Obama told him. "I said: 'thank you, I'm going to reach out to Gov. Blagojevich."
Balanoff then described a Nov. 6, 2008 meeting he had with Rod Blagojevich to recommend Valerie Jarrett for Barack Obama's Senate seat.
Blagojevich responded that he was in "active discussions" with the Madigans about appointing Lisa Madigan and was holding out for a legislative package with the House speaker.
"I said that could be months. He said, 'Yeah'. I said Valerie Jarrett, I don't believe she has that kind of time," Balanoff testified.
Blago then turned the conversation to a cabinet position, Balanoff said.
"He said, 'You know, I love being governor, but my real passion is health care,'" and then he asked about the Health and Human Services cabinet post.
"I told him that's not going to happen," Balanoff said. "He said, "Is that because of all the investigations around me?"
Reporting with Natasha Korecki
SEIU leader Thomas Balanoff, a key witness for the government, has just taken the stand.
Balanoff is expected to testify that Barack Obama called him before the election, giving him the green light to ask Blagojevich to appoint his friend Valerie Jarrett to his U.S. Senate seat.
He's also expected to say that Blagojevich told him he wanted a personal benefit in return for appointing Jarrett.
Early in his testimony, Balanoff says national union leader Andy Stern first raised Valerie Jarrett as a potential Senate successor in September 2008. As early as as October 2008, Stern said he talked to Jarrett and she said she was interested.
After spending part of the day building up former chief of staff John Harris as an intelligent, highly-educated aide, defense lawyer Sam Adam Sr. puts in the dagger:
"You never told him, did you, it'd be illegal to ask Obama to appoint him," Adam asks Harris, referring to Rod Blagojevich wanting a cabinet position from President-Elect Obama in exchange for appointing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett to the Senate seat.
Blagojevich sought the Health and Human Services cabinet appointment.
"Did you suggest to the Gov. that he or someone like himself, contact David Axelrod as somebody either you or the governor could contact to get in touch with Obama about the idea for HHS?" Adam asked. "That was you?"
Harris: "Yes."
Adam is trying to show that no one thought there was anything wrong with this kind of maneuvering, that's why even his bright gubernatorial staff was in on the suggestions.
Harris revealed that when Blagojevich then met for a second time with Tom Balanoff, an emissary for Jarrett, Balanoff wanted to talk to Blagojevich alone.
After that, Harris said he was given the impression that Balanoff supported the idea of Obama giving Blagojevich the Health and Human Services seat and that he would relay that to the Obama camp.
Judge James Zagel denies a defense request to gain access to the FBI report summarizing then President-Elect Obama's 2008 interview with federal investigators.
Defense lawyers argued in a filing last week that the government minimized Obama's knowledge of the then-Governor's attempts to horsetrade for the Senate seat appointment. They said that testimony by government witness John Harris contradicted that portrayal by federal prosecutors.
Harris testified last week that Blagojevich believed Obama knew about Blagojevich's request for a presidential cabinet appointment in exchange for appointing Valerie Jarrett to the Senate seat.
Zagel said there was nothing relevant concerning Harris's testimony that would allow the defense access to Obama's interview.
"There's just nothing there," Zagel said.
In their filing last week, defense lawyers argued that it was the government's own witnesses and evidence who raised the issue of Obama's knowledge of the Senate seat dealings.
"Testimony elicited by the government from John Harris and wiretaps played in court raise the issue of President Obama's direct knowledge and communication with emissaries and others regarding the appointment to his senate seat," lawyers wrote in the filing.
After Valerie Jarrett publicly pulled out of contention for the U.S. Senate seat appointment, Rahm Emanuel called Rod Blagojevich's top aide.
Emanuel had a list of "acceptable" names and it was from the then-President-Elect, according to testimony in Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial.
Blagojevich calls the list "B.S."
Emanuel, now Obama's chief of staff, relayed four names whom "the president would find acceptable," according to then-chief of staff John Harris, who is on the witness stand.
They were: Tammy Duckworth, State Comptroller Dan Hynes, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky,.
What's curious about the turn of events: Obama's agents -- Tom Balanoff and Andy Stern -- had previously told Blagojevich that Jesse Jackson Jr. should not be a candidate.
Emanuel's call to Harris about calling off Jarrett's appointment, came just days after he made a phone call to John Wyma to send a message from the president about Jarrett. That message was that the President-elect wanted Jarrett but that Blagojevich should expect only his appreciation in return. Wyma had been cooperating with federal investigators for weeks at the time of the phone call.
Emanuel told Harris that no one else from the Obama camp was allowed to talk about the Senate seat besides him, Harris said.
However, Harris qualified that from the stand: "Rahm might have had his own agenda." .S
"It's a B.S." Blagojevich says on a recording.
Harris explains that they believe Obama's list is a political list.
"That in fact if that became public, the President-elect would want the list to represent a diverse group of individuals," Harris explained from the stand.
"When they give you two whites a black and an Asian the only thing they really don't want is Emil," Harris says on tape, referencing former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones.
Jurors hear how Rod Blagojevich spends his day as governor. He's at his home, ordering two state-paid workers to research future high-paying jobs for himself.
Blagojevich desperately wants out of his position and plans to ask then-President Elect Obama to help him get a high-paying job in return for appointing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett to the U.S. Senate seat.
Good for prosecutors: Beyond the constant plotting that goes on in call after call, Blagjoevich can be heard snapping at wife Patti on the phone as she's looking up salary information for him. "You're just wasting f------ time. We're making it up. We're saying this is what I want...this is the deal."
Good for Blagojevich: Defense files a new request asking that federal prosecutors be forced to turn over FBI reports of its 2008 interview with President-Elect Obama. They say testimony by former chief of staff John Harris contradicts what the prosecution has previously said about Obama's knowledge of deal-making going on with Jarrett.
Up today: Harris testifies for the fourth straight day as a series of lengthy recorded phone calls are played for jurors.
Rod Blagojevich's lawyers say they should be privy to remarks that President-Elect Obama made to FBI agents in December, 2008.
The defense team has filed a motion asking for written reports of Obama's two-hour interview with prosecutors and the FBI, saying that testimony by key government witness John Harris has opened the door to possibly new information concerning Obama.
They say that testimony contradicts the government's previous public statements that Obama knew nothing about deal-making involving the Senate seat appointment.
"Testimony elicited by the government from John Harris and wiretaps played in court raise the issue of President Obama's direct knowledge and communication with emissaries and others regarding the appointment to his senate seat," lawyers wrote in the filing.
The filing goes on:
"The government has elicited testimony that directly contradicts its previous position. The government asked its cooperating witness, John Harris, questions referencing "President Obama's preferences", what President Obama knew, and what President Obama directed others to do and say, etc."
That includes testimony from Harris that SEIU union leader Tom Balanoff was delivering a message to Blagojevich from Obama as well as testimony that Blagojevich was told Obama knew the then-governor wanted a cabinet position in exchange for appointing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett to the open Senate seat post.
Obama,as well as others close to him, were interviewed by federal investigators following the arrest of the then-sitting governor Rod Blagojevich.
Judge James Zagel has blocked a defense request to subpoena President Obama, saying what they were seeking was irrelevant to the case. Zagel did say he might reconsider the issue as the trial was underway.
In another phone call, this one on Nov. 7, 2008, Rod Blagojevich is debriefing John Harris about a conversation he had with Doug Scofield.
Scofield, a onetime Blagojevich campaign spokesman/consultant and Blagojevich discussed how the Obama camp responded to Rod Blagojevich after he met with union leader Tom Balanoff about the Senate seat appointment. In that meeting, Blagojevich made it clear he wanted a presidential cabinet position.
"Didn't know quite what to make of my request. Barack really wants to get away from Illinois politics," Blagojevich said.
Harris testifies that Blagojevich told him he believed then-President-Elect Obama knew Blagojevich wanted a cabinet post in exchange for appointing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett.
"(Blagojevich) feels very confident that the president understands that the governor would be willing to make the appointment of Valerie Jarrett as long as he gets what he's asked for," Harris, Blagojevich's former chief of staff, testified, as he explained the recording, continuing: "The governor gets the cabinet appointment he's asked for."
Obama's internal report about his staff's contacts with Blagojevich at the time, indicates that Balanoff relayed to Jarrett that Blagojevich was interested in a Health and Human Services cabinet post. The report says Jarrett did not in her mind link the cabinet post request to her appointment to the Senate seat.
In the same call, Harris is overheard talking about getting a message from Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.
"So Alexi called me. He wanted to have a discussion about the Senate seat," John Harris is heard telling Blagojevich. "I imagine he'll tell me ... Barack wants Valerie."
Blagojevich: "Listen to me, don't see him today. Just ... let's run the clock now."
Prosecutors play a series of recordings where Rod Blagojevich can be heard asking how he can personally benefit from his power to appoint Barack Obama's replacement.
"Let's go down the pecking order... What else is good? Ambassador to the UN?" Blagojevich is heard saying in a secretly recorded call with his top aide, John Harris.
Harris: "No way."
Blagojevich: "Right, keep going ... "How about India? How about South Africa?"
Good for Blagojevich: The defense asks for a mistrial, saying Judge James Zagel unfairly shut down their questioning of witnesses and made inappropriate remarks in front of jurors. Zagel says they can submit a list of questions they should have been allowed to ask and he'd consider.
Up today:
Day three on the stand for John Harris. He'll pick up today talking about Blagojevich's on-tape statements about wanting to be named ambassador to India.
Prosecutors play their first secret recording of the day and it's John Harris relaying what Rahm Emanuel told him in a call the day before. He's talking to Rod Blagojevich about Emanuel conveying Barack Obama's interest in having Valerie Jarrett appointed to the senate seat.
"Should I have Barack call Rod?" Harris said Rahm asked him.
Harris said it would help, and he's heard laughing.
Harris: "You may get a call from him or Dave."
Blagojevich: "Dave who?"
Harris: "Axelrod."
Harris says he believes Obama to be serious about the appointment.
"(Obama) wouldn't leave it to osmosis or the media. He very much cares about this. It's his definite desire for Valerie," Harris says.
Blagojevich sounds almost gleeful at the thought.
At another point in the recording, Rod and Harris are heard questioning who it was that Obama wanted to see appointed -- because Emanuel did not specify in his call, they wondered if it might be a recent political favorite in Illinois, Tammy Duckworth.
Harris said it was clear Obama wanted Valerie Jarrett and not Duckworth. Rod's ears seemed to perk up.
Rod: "We should get something for that, could I? What about Health and Human Services, can I get that?"
Harris testifies that's a reference to a cabinet appointment.
Rod: "What could I honestly think I might get a shot at getting?"
Harris: "Well, besides good thing for Illinois, good thing for Illinois?"
In court, Harris said what's made clear in that conversation: "that he was seeking something for himself as well.
Back on the tape, Rod wonders what other positions may be available to him:
"I mean, what other cabinet position would be not stupid?" Rod is heard asking. "UN Ambassador?"
"Yeah, I don't think that's realistic or serious," Harris replies.
"S---, that would be cool, huh?" Blago says, laughing.
In court, Patti smiles as she listens.
The pair are also heard discussing other alternatives for the seat -- including Bill Daley, former U.S. commerce secretary and brother of Mayor Richard Daley, and Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan.
However, Harris testified, those were basically decoys, not serious alternatives.
Harris and Rod are heard discussing leaking a potential Lisa Madigan appointment to Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.
John Harris explains from the stand: "Michael Sneed is a woman who writes a political gossip column for a local paper -- a page that a lot of politicians read before the sports."
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked, then, if Harris and Rod were talking about leaking "false information" to Sneed.
Prosecution witness Joseph Aramanda just testified that Tony Rezko asked him to write a $10,000 campaign contribution check to Barack Obama.
"Isn't it true that Mr. Rezko asked you to make a check for $10,000 out to Friends of Obama?" Rod Blagojevich attorney Michael Gillespie asked.
Aramanda acknowledged the check. He gave $10,000 in campaign cash to Obama's U.S. Senate campaign on March 5, 2004, according to records.
In Rezko's criminal trial, prosecutors said Aramanda got an illegal $250,000 "finder's fee" tied to a state teacher-pension investment deal. Prosecutors also said that Aramanda did no work for the money, and that some of it was used to pay a Rezko debt.
According to prosecutors, it was a portion of that $250,000 that was routed back to Obama's campaign when he was running for U.S. Senate.
Aramanda said Rezko asked him to make the donation for him; it is a violation of campaign finance laws to make straw donations.
Obama -- who's said he had no idea at the time the Aramanda contribution was tainted in any way -- later gave the Aramanda money to charity, as well as tens of thousands of dollars more from Rezko, who was part of Obama's senatorial finance committee.
Aramanda said he remains friends with Rezko, who in 2008 was convicted of corruption under Blagojevich. Aramanda visited Rezko in jail on Jan. 4, 2009 and in February of 2009.
Gillespie is pressing Aramanda on the timing of his statements about the former governor to prosecutors. He said Aramanda's allegation about Blagojevich's involvement with Rezko in siphoning fees from TRS didn't come until after he met with Rezko in jail and after Rezko began talking to prosecutors.
"What could be more substantive than a sitting governor taking payments?" Gillespie asked, noting Aramanda hadn't specified this in one of his debriefings with the prosecution. Aramanda did not answer because the judge upheld an objection.
Gillespie asked if Aramanda heard that Rezko was cooperating back in 2009.
"I can tell you what I heard, it's not that I heard he was cooperating," Aramanda said. "Obviously if he's meeting with (prosecutors) he was talking with them. I don't know that he was cooperating with them."
"Soon after, was the first time you said to anyone this alleged statement that the governor was taking money, correct?" Gillespie asked.
Again, Aramanda couldn't respond because of an objection.
Aramanda didn't testify he knew Blagojevich took money, only that Rezko spoke of an agreement where Rezko, Blagojevich and two others would split proceeds from state deals.
Here's one other small connection between Rezko, Aramanda and Obama: Obama's Senate office hired Aramanda's son as an intern in 2005, at Rezko's urging.
Obama's camp, however, has said that Obama did not know Aramanda personally.
One of Rod Blagojevich's defense lawyers just took great pains to make sure witness Joseph Aramanda explained who else was at Tony Rezko's mansion the day he met Rod Blagojevich.
The other person: Barack Obama.
Aramanda said it was a fund-raiser for both Obama and Blagojevich.
The defense is trying to draw links here. They're trying to show that Aramanda was bamboozled by Tony Rezko -- just like Blagojevich and, they will argue, just like Obama.
Obama and Rezko were friends when Obama was an aspiring U.S. Senator. Rezko did some fund-raising for Obama and bought property next door to the Obama's Hyde Park home.
Defense lawyer Michael Gillespie said Rezko used Aramanda to funnel kickbacks.
"He made no mention he was using you as a front man to get his money," Gillespie asked.
Aramanda had testified that Rezko arranged for Aramanda to get "business loans"
through Rezko's friends. Rezko then tapped Aramanda to use portions of those "loans" to repay Rezko's debt.
Rezko also directed Aramanda to make payments on his behalf, he testified. Aramanda testified that Rezko gave him a list of names and told him the amounts he was to wire to various Rezko associates.
Not included in that list: Rod Blagojevich.
"He never gave you a wire transfer for an account in Aruba and said, this is the governor's, send it to him," Gillespie asked.
"No," Aramanda responded.
Lon Monk just gives a new angle on the most compelling storyline of the Rod Blagojevich trial: horsetrading for the senate seat.
Monk described Blagojevich as a man so consumed by raising money, and thus power, for himself, that he was willing to trade a Senate seat appointment to kill an ethics bill.
Monk testified that a call from Barack Obama in 2008 unwittingly derailed a deal hatched by Rod Blagojevich and Illinois Senate President Emil Jones.
Monk testified that Blagojevich told him that Jones (who has since retired) would not call an ethics bill that Blagojevich strongly opposed if "Rod named him to Obama's Senate seat if Obama won in November."
"Did you understand he was serious?" prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked.
"Yes," Monk said.
Obama himself then called Jones and told him to call the bill for a vote, Monk said. Jones then called to tell Blagojevich he was going back on the deal.
Rod Blagojevich was writing furiously and leaning into his notebook during this part of the testimony.
The reason Blagojevich was so interested in killing this bill goes back to fund-raising, Monk testified.
Once Chris Kelly was charged in 2007, Rod Blagojevich took a more direct and active role in fund-raising, Monk testified. Blagojevich picked up the phone and called people himself. He was more active.
Then the brakes were going to be put on him. The Illinois Legislature in 2008 passed a far-reaching ethics bill that would keep him from soliciting donations from people who did business with the state. After Jan. 1, 2009, there was a fairly large group of donors who were no longer able to give him money.
Blagojevich thought: "It was overreaching and unfair because it focused only on the governor's office and not the legislature," Monk said.
As an aside: When the bill stalled in the senate, there were many negative headlines. That was led by the Chicago Sun-Times where an editorial eventually asked then-Presidential candidate Obama to call Jones and force the bill to be called. The editorial included Jones' office phone number.
Former political fund-raiser Tony Rezko's name will likely be invoked numerous times in Rod Blagojevich's trial -- but chances are, jurors won't ever see his face.
Sources with knowledge of the government's case say prosecutors are worried that Rezko is too risky to put on the stand.
According to the sources, prosecutors fear Rezko brings with him much baggage of his own, could create a distraction, and worry that he'll "go off the reservation" if he testifies.
Rezko was convicted on his own corruption charges in 2008. Earlier that year, he accused prosecutors -- the same trio gearing up to try the Blagojevich case -- of pressuring him to lie about Blagojevich and then-Sen. Barack Obama.
