Levine: Blagojevich knew
REZKO TRIAL | Star witness says 'the big guy' knew businessman threatened to go to 'the G' to expose $1.5 million shakedown
Despite Gov. Blagojevich's repeated denials that he knew anything about alleged pay-to-play schemes, "the big guy" was told about one plan to squeeze campaign contributions from a firm seeking state business, according to bombshell testimony Wednesday at Tony Rezko's corruption trial.
"Mr. Rezko indicated to me that he had made the governor aware of the situation" involving threats from a Chicago businessman-turned-Hollywood producer to expose a shakedown for campaign cash in 2004, star prosecution witness Stuart Levine told jurors. "And the governor agreed with the way Mr. Rezko wanted to handle it."
(AP/Sun-Times)
TODAY: Defense lawyers might get their first chance to question Levine.
Blagojevich hasn't been charged with any crimes. And again Wednesday his office denied ever awarding state contracts "based on campaign contributions. We never have. We never will. And anyone who suggests otherwise is not telling the truth," Blagojevich press secretary Abby Ottenhoff said.
Wednesday's testimony was the most serious allegation against the governor to arise out of Rezko's trial -- that the governor knew of the tactics used by his top fund-raisers to boost his campaign kitty.
Rezko and Levine are accused of coercing kickbacks and campaign contributions from firms seeking state business from the Blagojevich administration. Levine has pleaded guilty. His newest testimony was backed up by secretly recorded phone calls that were played in court.
The "situation" Levine spoke of involved Thomas Rosenberg, a former principal of the Capri Capital investment firm who is now a movie producer best known for the hit film "Million Dollar Baby."
According to the secret FBI recordings, Rosenberg believed he was being shaken down by two Blagojevich fund-raisers for $1.5 million in campaign contributions to Blagojevich for Capri Capital to get a $220 million state pension investment deal from the Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois. Rosenberg was threatening to "take them down" by telling authorities about the scheme, Levine, then a TRS board member, was told.
"If they're going to do this to me and think they're going to blackmail me -- I'm going to take them down," Rosenberg told GOP power-broker-turned-Blagojevich-ally William Cellini, Cellini says on one recording.
Rosenberg's threats to go to "the G" and blow the whistle set off a frenzied series of phone calls and meetings among Blagojevich insiders strategizing how to finesse Rosenberg. At one point, Blagojevich adviser and fund-raiser Chris Kelly called Cellini on one cell phone and, at the same time, called Levine on another, according to the recordings.
Kelly, heard in court on a recording for the first time, arranged for a meeting later in Rezko's office. It took place May 11, 2004, with Cellini, on a speaker phone from Springfield, Levine, Kelly and Rezko. Levine told jurors that Rezko hatched a plan to keep Rosenberg happy, proposing to go ahead and give Capri Capital the $220 million deal with TRS to appease Rosenberg but cutting off his firm from any future state business.
Levine testified that Rezko told him that Blagojevich agreed and that, after the TRS deal, "The governor indicated he doesn't care what happens to Mr. Rosenberg. He feels he owes Mr. Rosenberg nothing."
Cellini and Levine discussed the meeting the next day on another call recorded by the FBI. Cellini referred to Blagojevich as "the big guy," Levine testified.
"Did [Rezko] tell you too that the big guy said Rosenberg means nothing to him?" Cellini is heard saying.
"Mm hm," Levine replied.
Cellini has not been charged with any crime and has declined to comment. Kelly has been charged in a separate tax case. He is not charged in the Rezko and Levine case, and his lawyer, Michael Monico, has denied any wrongdoing.
The Chicago Sun-Times in 2006 broke the story of the feds investigating whether Rosenberg was being shaken down.