Cross examination of Levine ends
A prosecution witness in Antoin Rezko's corruption trial said Tuesday Gov. Rod Blagojevich spoke of White House ambitions and voiced optimism about raising campaign cash for an implied presidential run because of his ability, as a governor, to award state contracts, legal work and investment opportunities.
That testimony came from Joseph Cari, an attorney who has entered a guilty plea for his role in an extortion and kickback scheme that prosecutors say involved Rezko. Cari told jurors of an October 2003 conversation he had with Blagojevich en route by private plane to a fundraiser for Blagojevich in New York.
Blagojevich, Cari testified, told him he was impressed by the sums of campaign cash Bill Clinton has been able to raise as governor of Arkansas.
That conversation, Cari said, was part of a concentrated, months-long effort by the governor and his fundraising associates -- Rezko, Christopher G. Kelly and key prosecution witness Stuart Levine -- to recruit him to spearhead a national fundraising effort for Blagojevich.
Blagojevich, Cari said, "went out of his way to say how much he liked and respected Kelly and Rezko. He said they would be key people in his public service career wherever he went."
Blagojevich has not been charged with wrongdoing, and his representatives repeatedly have said the governor has not extended contracts or government favors in exchange for campaign contributions.
"As we've said before, no conversation like that ever took place," Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Tuesday evening. "It's absurd. The governor barely knows Mr. Cari."
At one point, Cari testified Tuesday, he agreed to a meeting with Levine, Kelly and Rezko in which Rezko said it was he who instructed Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk on whom to hire for the administration's consulting and legal work.
Under cross-examination by Joseph Duffy, Rezko's attorney, Cari acknowledged Levine -- not Rezko -- had scheduled that meeting. Cari also acknowledged Rezko had never contacted him at any other time.
Cari said he repeatedly rejected the Blagojevich camp's overtures for personal reasons. He was too emotionally distraught, he testified, over his wife's recent death to head up a national fundraising campaign. Cari said Blagojevich and associates knew of his expertise because he served as national campaign finance chair for Al Gore's 2000 presidential run.
During this same timeframe, Cari testified, he had frequent contact with Levine because he was seeking business for his private equity firm from the Illinois State Board of Investment.
Prosecutors have said Levine was in a position to deliver such business because of his seat on the Teachers Retirement System board. Prosecutors say Levine and Rezko schemed to demand campaign contributions or kickbacks from firms wanting a share of the board's pension investments.
In Cari's case, prosecutors allege, Levine and Rezko demanded he hire a consultant designated to handle a kickback before Cari's equity firm, HealthPoint, would receive a share of the pension funds. In addition, Cari testified, Levine insisted he pressure a separate firm, JER Real Estate Partners of Virginia, to hire a separate consultant to serve as a conduit for a kickback. Cari eventually was indicted and pleaded guilty of extortion as a result of the pressure he applied to JER.