Capitol Fax, one of the best sources for all things Illinois politics, didn’t have to do too much work to discover that you can copy and paste former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s motion to subpoena President Obama and read the redacted portions. (Oops.)
Here is perhaps the most interesting passage for non-Illinois readers:
In a recent in camera proceeding, the government tendered a three paragraph letter indicating that Rezko “has stated in interviews with the government that he engaged in election law violations by personally contributing a large sum of cash to the campaign of a public official who is not Rod Blagojevich. … Further, the public official denies being aware of cash contributions to his campaign by Rezko or others and denies having conversations with Rezko related to cash contributions.
Rezko has also stated in interviews with the government that he believed he transmitted a quid pro quo offer from a lobbyist to the public official, whereby the lobbyist would hold a fundraiser for the official in exchange for favorable official action, but that the public official rejected the offer. The public official denies any such conversation.
In addition, Rezko has stated to the government that he and the public official had certain conversations about gaming legislation and administration, which the public official denies having had.
President Obama is the only one who can testify as to the veracity of Mr. Rezko’s allegations above.
Now, conservatives, don’t get too excited. There’s no reason to start believing Rod Blagojevich now, even if you were impressed by his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice.
But this business of “cash contributions” to Obama is particularly interesting in light of the fact that $220 million in contributions to the Obama presidential campaign fell below the $200 limit at which they had to be reported to the Federal Election Commission. I was among many people in 2008 who wrote of problems with the larger, reported donations popped up, including:
donors named “Doodad Pro,” “Derty Poiiuy,” and “Jgtj Jfggjjfgj.” (And you thought Barack Obama had a funny name.)…The Obama campaign cannot claim ignorance of “Good Will,” whose address is the Goodwill headquarters in Austin, and whose occupation is “Loving You.” The Goodwill office received a letter from Obama last month indicating that Mr. Will had exceeded the legal limit with his $7,000 in contributions, and asking whether part of the money could be directed to Obama’s general election campaign.
I wrote at the time that voters should also be concerned with smaller donations, which need not be disclosed in any report.
Obama’s finance team missed quite a few obviously troubling large donations, from such unsavory individuals as Mr. Jfggjjfgj, “Mong Kong,” “Test Person,” and “Jockim Alberton,” who lives at a fictional address on a street that does not exist in Wilmington, Delaware. How many fictional characters might there be among the $220 million that Obama has collected in small, undisclosed contributions?
That’s just the presidential campaign. The campaign finance reporting system at every level is obviously full of holes for characters like Rezko to exploit.
