Recently in Gov. Blagojevich Category

Witness Ali Ata testified that Tony Rezko asked him for cash four different times for a total of $125,000.
Ata went to his brother-in-law's company, Jenin Distribution, and removed huge sums of cash from the safe. On the first occasion, Rezko told him he needed $25,000 for Gov. Blagojevich's home. Contractors were going to slap a lien on the home if the money didn't come through, Ata said.

Another request for money came in the fall of 2004.
"He needed $100,000 ... he was being pushed, he had a lot of obligations and he needed $100,000 in cash," Ata said Rezko told him. Ata had half of that.
Rezko allegedly showed up at Ata's Lemont home and told him to get in the car. With $50,000 in a bag in the car, the two drove to the house of Blagojevich fund-raiser Chris Kelly.

In the months before Ali Ata was appointed to a state post, Tony Rezko hit him up for a $50,000 campaign contribution for Blagojevich. " I said: 'No, I can only give $25,000.' ”
That was on top of previous contributions totaling $60,000.

Later, Ata spoke with the governor at a summer fund-raiser at Navy Pier.
“Mr. Blagojevich thanked me for my continuing support. He indicated he was aware of myself making another contribution and said he understood I was considering a position with the new administration. (He) said that it better be a job where I could make some money.”
Ata later told Rezko of the conversation with Blagojevich.
"I said I was surprised that the governor would make such a statement," Ata said. "Mr. Rezko said he wasn’t surprised."

Gov. Blagojevich's spokeswoman, Abby Ottenhoff, responds to an allegation that Tony Rezko shook down former Blagojevich official Ali Ata to pay an impending lien on the governor's home.

Ata said he gave Rezko $25,000 in cash after Rezko told him he needed to pass the money to contractors who were about to place on a lien on the governor's home.

“We can’t comment on alleged conversations that the governor was not a party to,” spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said today. "As we said last year, the Blagojeviches personally paid for the work to renovate their 14-by-20 family room out of their checking account."

Ata, the former $127,000-a-year head of the Illinois Finance Authority, gave $60,000 in contributions to the governor's campaign fund before winning his post. Rezko's lawyers say there is nothing to back up Ata's accusations. Ata is expected to take the stand in Rezko's trial Thursday.

In 2007, the Sun-Times exclusively reported that the governor used contractors from Tony Rezko companies to renovate his Ravenswood Manor home.

Read the story: Blago renovation

Here's a summary of today's events in court related to Ali Ata's expected testimony Thursday:
Rezko sought cash to avoid lien on Gov's home

In court today, prosecutors say that Tony Rezko asked former state official Ali Ata to give him cash to help prevent a lien on Gov. Blagojevich's Ravenswood Manor home.

There is no trial today, it is the first of two days off. The free days are designed to give the defense some time to prepare for Ata's testimony since he just came on as a witness last week.

Tom Rosenberg recalled hearing of pressures the governor's people were putting on a state board to reward political donors.

He once told GOP power broker Bill Cellini predicted that the way a state board operated, people could end up in court. Rosenberg called up Cellini when he had business stall with the Teachers' Retirement System board. Rosenberg had a feeling that his old nemesis Stuart Levine, who was on the TRS board, was behind torpedoing the deal.
So he called up Cellini, "Because he always knows what was going on.”

This didn't come up at the Tony Rezko trial.

But it will.

Ali Ata, a Rezko associate and co-defendant in Rezko's other case -- a loan fraud indictment that's still pending -- said he was in Rezko's Chicago offices with the governor when he handed over a $25,000 campaign check.

More details in the story we just posted online: Ex-aide pleads guilty

Ali Ata leveled some serious allegations against the governor today.