Witness: 'Patrick Fitzgerald would be terminated'
Tony Rezko associate Elie Maloof (pictured above, right) just testified that when he received a grand jury subpoena, Rezko told him not to talk to the feds. Why?
"The federal prosecutor will no longer be the same federal prosecutor," Maloof just testified that Rezko told him. What did Rezko mean prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked? "That Patrick Fitzgerald would be terminated and Dennis Hastert will name his replacement. The investigation will be over."
Maloof, who once helped run some of Rezko's fast-food businesses, said Rezko told him of Fitzgerald's replacement: "That they will order the prosecutor to stop the investigation."
It is the first time jurors heard an accusation that Rezko worked behind the scenes to oust Fitzgerald.
Last week, prosecutors revealed that future witness Ali Ata will also testify that he knew of a plan by Rezko to eliminated Fitzgerald and replace him with someone who wouldn't go after Rezko.
On cross examination, though, Defense lawyer William Ziegelmueller asked whether he knew that it's President who appoints U.S. Attorneys.
Maloof also testified that Rezko told him not to bring up his name to prosecutors because it would only link to Gov. Blagojevich.
The conversation with Rezko, took place in February, 2004 inside of Rezko's Wilmette mansion. Only Rezko's housekeeper was there, aside from Maloof and Rezko.
Maloof said as they talked, Rezko had three cell phones in front of him.
"It was kind of weird, he had three cell phones in front of him," Maloof said.
When Maloof asked why, Rezko explained: "Just in case somebody’s listening," Maloof said.
What did he mean? “If the feds were listening.”
Was Mr. Rezko joking?
"No, it wasn’t a joke," Maloof said.
Maloof left the stand without ever invoking Barack Obama's name, despite previous allegations by prosecutors that he made a straw donation for Rezko to Obama's Senatorial campaign fund. It is clear that lawyers -- and the judge -- have been careful not to bring Obama's name into case, even outside the presence of the jury.
After Maloof left the stand, cameras chased him out of the federal courts building.
Newspaper photographers and television camera crews hustled to get in front of Maloof and, in what is a common scene in federal court, walked backwards, attempting not to run into one another while staying out of the rain.
Then Maloof asked something surprising: "You need me to slow down for you?"
Everyone nodded.
He did.
Comments
What exactly do "terminated" and "eliminated" mean in this context? Because, they don't sound the same as just having someone fired.
Posted by: TLB | April 28, 2008 06:41 PM
Hastert does not have clean hands
Posted by: Corruption Watch | April 28, 2008 11:35 PM
I was in a family for more than 26 years who directly involved in the huge Combine in a way that will astound everyone when it finally surfaces. I can personally tell everyone that I know of "others" who were the target of these people to move them out of the way. In one case, they succeed for a few years when this person and family decided to come back. This first attempt was successful but there was another attempt made when this person got really close to something huge. I’m not allowed to talk about this but you can be assured that it holds another important key to what really has been going on not only in the State of Illinois, but also way up into our Federal level. This is because this person is near the same level as Fitzgerald is and it affects all of us.
There is so much going on that right now it’s impossible to talk about it partly because most of it isn’t out yet. Because of what I know, I sincerely feel that it’s only a matter of time before the story (and others) I’m talking about surfaces.
Marty Didier
Northbrook, IL
Posted by: Marty Didier | April 30, 2008 04:16 PM