Second witness refers to hint of Fitzgerald ouster
Keep my name out of it.
That, in essence, says government witness Elie Maloof, is what Antoin "Tony" Rezko told him after Maloof was subpoenaed in a federal probe that led to Rezko's indictment on corruption charges.
Maloof, a restaurateur from Vernon Hills, also made the second open-court reference in recent days to a behind-the-scenes effort to replace U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and derail the investigation of Rezko and associates.
Maloof, who is being granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, once served as vice president of operations for Rezko's Papa John's pizza chain. He told jurors during Rezko's trial Monday that he met with the defendant at Rezko's Wilmette home after being served a subpoena in February 2005.
Rezko told him that when he spoke with federal investigators he should not mention his name or talk about Gov. Blagojevich, Maloof testified. Rezko also indicated, Maloof said, that the U.S. attorney's office would change hands soon, that Fitzgerald would "be terminated" and that Dennis Hastert, then U.S. House speaker, would name a replacement.
"And what did you understand would be the significance if Fitzgerald was no longer U.S. attorney?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Niewoehner asked.
"That the investigation would be over," Maloof answered.
Last week, prosecutors told Judge Amy St. Eve, with no jurors present, that they expect former Illinois Finance Authority Director Ali Ata to testify that he and Rezko discussed a bipartisan effort to oust Fitzgerald. Ata will testify, prosecutors said, that Illinois Republican lobbyist Robert Kjellander and Karl Rove, former adviser to President Bush, were working to replace Fitzgerald as investigators closed in on Rezko and Stuart Levine, a key prosecution witness against Rezko.
At that time, the Bush White House was feeling the heat of a Fitzgerald investigation over a possible administration leak revealing the identity of an undercover CIA agent.
Kjellander and Rove's attorney say no such talks occurred.
During Monday afternoon testimony, prosecutors used phone records in an effort to portray frequent contact between Rezko and Levine, who, they say, schemed together to gain millions of dollars in kickbacks from those seeking to do business with the state. Prosecution witness Charles Willenborg, an FBI agent who analyzed the phone records, testified that at least 435 calls were placed between phones belonging to either Rezko or Levine from November 2002 through May 2004.
Willenborg also cited more than 200 calls between Rezko and former Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk. Earlier prosecution testimony asserted that Rezko told Monk whom to hire for key positions in the Blagojevich administration.
Defense attorney Bill Ziegelmueller used his cross examination of Willenborg to establish that only a handful of calls between Rezko and Levine lasted for more than five minutes and that the vast majority either originated from or were placed to Rezko's business office.
From there, Ziegelmueller implied, any number of different people, including Rezko associate Christopher Kelly, might have placed or taken the calls.
During one three-week stretch, Ziegelmueller established, Levine placed 22 calls to Rezko while Rezko initiated only two to Levine.
In other testimony Monday, prosecutors called on an Internal Revenue Service agent to reinforce their flow-of-money allegations. The agent, Rick Kozma, used bank statements to show that Levine associate Sheldon Pekin received from Glencoe Capital checks totaling $375,000 and that Pekin then moved $250,000 to accounts controlled by Joseph Aramanda, a Rezko business partner.
According to prosecutors and earlier testimony from Levine, the $375,000 was a kickback extracted from Glencoe in exchange for a share of state pension business.
St. Eve said the trial will resume Thursday, giving attorneys from both sides time to prepare for Ata's testimony. St. Eve said the trial is running ahead of schedule and that jurors might receive the case as early as mid-May.