Burris expresses concern over turmoil he's caused state Dem leader

SPRINGFIELD - Insisting he did nothing wrong and concerned with Republican attacks upon her character, U.S. Sen. Roland Burris phoned Illinois House Democratic leader Barbara Flynn Currie on Sunday.

"We spoke very briefly; he expressed concern over attacks on me and said that he'd done nothing wrong. We did not discuss the affidavit," Currie said Wednesday.

Currie, a Democrat from Chicago, has come under fire from House Republicans upset they did not receive copies of Burris' Feb. 4 legal filing until Burris' office released the document on Feb. 13. Currie said she received the paperwork on Feb. 6, but explained that due to a "communications mishap" and the President's Day holiday she did not distribute the affidavit to Republicans.

"Any suggestion that I engaged in a deliberate cover-up, that I purposely delayed distribution of the information is totally false," Currie said on the House floor Feb. 19. "Any suggestion that I should do a better job of reading my mail in a timely fashion is a suggestion I enthusiastically - and more than a little ruefully - embrace."

Last week, GOP leader Rep. Tom Cross, of Oswego, and Rep. Jim Durkin, a Western Springs Republican, demanded Currie account for her contacts with Burris and his aides. Currie wrote to both men on Wednesday. Copies were provided to the media.

Besides Sunday's call from Burris, a Democrat from Chicago, Currie said she spoke with Burris lawyer Timothy Wright on Feb. 14 ahead of a Burris news conference the next day. Currie also said she directed several calls to her from Wright in January to House legal staffers.

Burris is under investigation by the U.S. Senate and a downstate prosecutor for allegedly lying under oath to an Illinois House committee investigating malfeasance by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who appointed Burris to the Senate on Dec. 30 to fill the seat vacated by President Barack Obama. Currie is chairwoman of the House investigative committee.

In Burris' Feb. 4 affidavit, the junior senator admits Rob Blagojevich, the ex-governor's brother and head of his campaign committee, asked Burris to raise money for then-Gov. Blagojevich. Burris later said he tried - but failed - to raise money for Blagojevich.

Those statements appear to contradict Burris' testimony before the House committee and an earlier affidavit describing only one contact with a Blagojevich aide before his appointment.