In January, the Sun-Times reported that a portion of the Tony Rezko case led to Barack Obama's campaign fund. Obama isn't accused of doing anything wrong. But Rezko allegedly used straw donors to kick into Obama's campaign fund during his run for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
While none of that came out at trial, today, for the first time, a filing recently unsealed shows the government's initial intent to call witnesses about that aspect of the case. The judge in the case, Amy St. Eve, ruled that the prosecution could bring up Obama's name. But they never did. And references to Obama were not only kept out of the trial during his run for the primary -- it was kept under seal. Until today.
The filing indicates that the prosecution wanted witnesses to talk about Rezko's prowess as an Obama fund-raiser and his influence in getting two others -- Joseph Aramanda and Semir Sirazi -- to donate Rezko money to Obama's campaigns in their names. The money kicked into Obama's campaigns came from an illicit kickback scheme. Obama has since donated that money to charity.
