The Jackson $5 million?
The Sun-Times has learned that 2 members of Chicago’s Indian community sent word to Blagojevich’s camp that Jesse Jackson Jr. would raise $5 million in exchange for Obama’s Senate seat
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s camp was told last year that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) would raise up to $5 million in campaign cash for the ex-governor if he was appointed to President Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The overture came from at least two members of the local Indian community who approached the Blagojevich fund-raising team last fall, sources say.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
Besides the $5 million to be raised by Jackson, the proposal also included another $1 million for Blagojevich’s campaign fund that would come from Indian donors, sources say.
This is the first revelation that a proposal for the Jackson appointment involved an alleged promise that he’d raise campaign cash for the ex-governor.
Also, the amount of money allegedly offered to Blagojevich is significantly higher than what’s been reported so far.
Sources did not disclose what role, if any, Jackson played in authorizing the offers to Blagojevich. Jackson has denied allowing anyone to make pay-to-play offers to the governor on his behalf. The congressman has been interviewed by authorities but has not been accused of wrongdoing.
The approaches to the Blagojevich camp happened in the final weeks of October — even before Obama vacated his seat, sources say.
The first came from Rajinder Bedi, a state employee who acted as a conduit to the Indian community for Blagojevich, sources say. Bedi met with the governor’s brother, Robert, to tell him that a longtime fund-raiser and wealthy health care businessman, Raghuveer Nayak, would help organize fund-raising within the Indian community and that Jackson would raise money as well.
Then, at an Oct. 31 planning luncheon at the India House restaurant in Schaumburg, Nayak delivered a similar message to Robert Blagojevich, the Sun-Times has learned. Nayak allegedly identified himself to the Blagojevich camp as a representative of Jackson, sources say.
At some point, signals were crossed in communicating the dollar amounts, though, leaving Rod Blagojevich to believe, according to the criminal complaint against him, that he would be paid $1.5 million should he appoint Jackson to fill Obama’s seat.
But the offer was really supposed to be $5 million raised by Jackson, as well as up to $1 million from the Indian community, sources said.
Jackson was a vocal contender for the Senate seat appointment last year. But, he said after Rod Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest, that he believed Blagojevich would choose an appointee based on qualifications — not money.
At the time, Jackson acknowledged speaking with Nayak about the Senate seat but said it didn’t involve anything illegal. “I pray for him and I am confident I didn’t ask him to do anything that is suggested in the complaint that would violate the law,” Jackson told the Sun-Times at the time.
Jackson last week acknowledged the Office of Congressional Ethics has launched an inquiry into him, but said he did nothing wrong and was fully cooperating.
In a secret recording made by the government and dated Oct. 31 — the same day as the fund-raising planning luncheon in Schaumburg — Rod Blagojevich is overheard discussing his alleged approach by a Jackson emissary, according to the criminal complaint filed against Rod Blagojevich.
“We were approached ‘pay to play,’ ” the ex-governor says, “That, you know, he’d raise me 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him [Jackson] a senator.”
In the government’s April 2 indictment of both the ex-governor and his brother, both men were charged with wire fraud stemming from a phone discussion they had on Nov. 1, 2008 — a day after the Schaumburg luncheon — about the alleged solicitation of campaign contributions involving Jackson and others.
The indictment also charges that, as part of Blagojevich’s scheme to sell the Senate seat, the ex-governor sought “substantial campaign fund-raising assistance from individuals seeking the United States senate seat and their backers, including Candidate A (Jackson), whose associate Rod Blagojevich understood to have offered $1.5 million in campaign contributions in return for . . . appointment of Senate Candidate A.”
Those close to Rod Blagojevich say that in October, Jackson had no chance at the seat because the ex-governor held a grudge against Jackson for not endorsing Blagojevich’s first run for governor in 2002.
Rod Blagojevich initially set his sights on appointing Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett because he allegedly believed he could squeeze Obama for an appointment or job for himself or his wife. It was after Jarrett pulled out of contention that Jackson was again in play, sources say.
The congressional ethics panel that has launched an inquiry into Jackson is seeking information about both Nayak and Bedi as well as Jackson’s brother, Jonathan Jackson, according to parties who received requests for information. The three attended a Dec. 6 fund-raiser for Blagojevich where the possibility of a Jackson selection was discussed, according to people who attended the fund-raiser.
According to internal campaign documents obtained by the Sun-Times, the Oct. 31 event was a meeting to plan the Dec. 6 fund-raiser, which sought to raise $100,000. The Dec. 6 fund-raiser, which lists a contact name of “Rajinder” on internal campaign documents, actually raised about $20,000. Nayak was listed as a fund-raising target on those documents.
Bedi had been a key fund-raiser for ex-Gov. Blagojevich in Chicago’s Indian-American community. In June 2003, Blagojevich hired him to manage the state’s office of trade and investment — a position Bedi continues to hold under Gov. Quinn at an annual salary of $111,708.
Nayak and Bedi have not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Contributing: Chris Fusco