Trial journal for Wednesday, March 19
More name-dropping
In power broker Stuart Levine's testimony, Wednesday, he continued to drop the names of the rich and powerful in Illinois. Testifying about an Oct. 28, 2003, charity dinner for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces (at which Levine said he was honored), Levine went over the dinner committee list. Included on that list was William Singer, former Speaker of the Illinois House Lee Daniels, Levine co-conspirator Sheldon Pekin, John Glennon (who later pleaded guilty to helping Levine cover up a kickback scheme at Rosalind Franklin University), Nicholas Hurtgen, (who has pleaded innocent of helping to facilitate the Edwards Hospital shakedown Levine confessed to), Jacob Kieferbaum (who pleaded guilty to the Edwards Hospital shakedown Levine planned), Republican National Committeeman Robert Kjellander, Steven Loren (who pleaded guilty to committing crimes with Levine involving the Teachers Retirement System), Republican power broker William Cellini, former Chicago Ald. Edward R. Vrdolyak (who has pleaded innocent to a kickback scheme involving Levine), accused Levine co-conspirator Robert Weinstein, Rezko pal Dr. Fortunee Massuda, and former state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.
Two of the attendees were supposed to be former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but neither showed. Levine said Thompson was nice enough to send a videotaped message of support. Levine said Nicholas Hurtgen, a former employee of Bear Stearns, had arranged for Thompson to be there.
Another event Levine attended was Rezko's April 3, 2004, party for Iraqi billionaire Nahdmi Auchi. Other attendees included Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn; Jack Lavin, a former Rezko business partner and the head of Blagojevich's economic development agency; Michael Rumman, a co-investor in a Rezko project and then the head of the Illinois office of Central Management Services and Christopher Kelly, a Blagojevich fundraiser and once the governor's point man on gambling in Illinois.
Meigs Shmeigs
Who needs Meigs Field? Years after Mayor Richard Daley bulldozed the small lakefront runways at Meigs Field to turn it into a park, it appears that the rich and powerful are doing just fine using suburban airports. Levine reported that when he took Bill and Julie Cellini and Tony and Rita Rezko to Washington, D.C., in December 2003 to party with President George W. Bush at the White House, they used Levine's jet timeshare. The jet departed from DuPage County Airport, picked up the group at Palwaukee Airport in Wheeling and then flew to the nation's capital. The price? Only about $12,000.
Don't make no waves
When Stuart Levine sought reappointment to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, he told intermediary Bill Cellini to tell the Blagojevich administration to make clear to them that he would vote however they wanted him to, regardless of the merits of a particular project, he testified.
That was nothing new for Levine, who said he made that understanding perfectly clear with the two prior governors, George Ryan and Jim Edgar.
Who's on first
Sometimes, it's hard to tell who's loyal to whom, especially if you're pretending to be a Republican but are really carrying water for a Democratic governor. Levine said that when he called to thank Rezko for his re-appointment to the planning board, Rezko told him a humorous story. When Levine's name appeared on a list of people to be re-appointed, the governor's Budget Director John Filan told Blagojevich's chief of staff Lon Monk that it had to be a mistake, testified Levine, who said he heard the story from Rezko. Filan thought it was a mistake because, about a month beforehand, Filan had appeared before the Teachers Retirement System, another board Levine sat on, to discuss the governor's plan to combine three pension boards into one. Levine spoke out strongly against it. "Mr. Rezko relayed (this) to me and laughed and relayed to Mr. Filan that I was in fact his guy," testified Levine. The Levine "outburst" at the TRS meeting, Rezko assured Filan, "was sanctioned" beforehand by Rezko, Levine testified.
Once more, this time with feeling
And we've heard it before because it's appeared in court documents, but the world finally got to hear Levine say it in firsthand.
Levine said he spoke to Gov. Blagojevich about state boards only once: while on a flight back from New York. A fundraising trip, Levine had again footed the bill for the private jet. On board the plane to New York on Oct. 29, 2003, had been Blagojevich, Levine, lawyer and fundraiser Joseph Cari, Bear Stearns financier Nick Hurtgen, Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk, Blagojevich friend John Wyma, fundraiser Chris Kelly and Blagojevich bodyguard Joe Morrero. On the way back, said Levine, it was just Kelly, Levine and the governor as passengers.
Levine thanked the governor for his reappointment to the Health Facilities Planning Board.
"The governor said … 'Never discuss any state board with me,'" Levine said. Instead, Blagojevich told Levine to talk only through Rezko or Chris Kelly. But he did add, "But you stick with us and you'll do very well for yourself," Levine testified. "I took it to mean that I would have an opportunity to make a lot of money."
"Mr. Kelly (then) changed the topic of the conversation," Levine said.
In a written response, Blagojevich's spokeswoman said of Levine's claim, "Stuart Levine's assertions about the Governor are wrong. As we've said before, that's not how the Governor does business."