The NA710N

For the past year, the case against Rod Blagojevich in the eyes of the American public has stood impervious to attack, since the only person attacking it was Rod Blagojevich. The federal complaint against the former Illinois governor, however, reads like a minefield of shady witnesses, out-of-context quotes, and a passion for getting this man and his Football indicted regardless of the truth. Blagojevich has been demanding that the FBI release the full, unedited conversations that the latter claim condemn him. He might just have a good reason for that. (Part 1 here)

In the first part of the federal complaint, as a way to corroborate the evidence that Blagojevich tried to use his influence to have the Chicago Tribune fire a reporter unfavorable to him, the complaint cites an occasion where Blagojevich spoke to a supposed campaign donor about giving him a high-level job. The donor, senior Blagojevich advisor Ali Ata, allegedly “discussed…a potential appointment to a high-level position in the State of Illinois while a $25,000 donation check to Friends of Blagojevich from Ata was sitting on a table.” Ata is the first of a stream of dubious witnesses to provide sideline information after pleading guilty to corruption charges. Among typical corruption charges like tax fraud, Ata proved he was not above perjury, pleading guilty of making false statements to the FBI to stay afloat. In exchange for damning testimony on Blagojevich, the federal complaint states “the government will make a motion pursuant to 5K1.1 for a reduction from his 12-18 month applicable guideline range.” If he had lied before to get out of jail, there is little reason to believe he would not do it again if offered a bargain. Ata is closely linked to another disgraced Blagojevich fundraiser, Antoin Rezko, most famous for his shady land dealings with Barack Obama, though also a known fundraiser for his State Senate and US Senate campaigns. Rezko was supposedly at the meeting where Ata and Blagojevich discussed a job offer, but “has a different recollection regarding the timing and chronology.” He is also being offered a reduced sentence in exchange for his services against Blagojevich, but this time the complaint admits “the government is not yet satisfied that Rezko’s accounts are full and complete… the government is not relying on Rezko’s account for probable cause.”

Then there is the first witness mentioned who actually testified to the FBI in the Blagojevich matter, and did not provide recycled material from the Rezko case that seemed to have the right pronouns. Stuart Levine, a former member of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, stood accused of 28 counts of corruption (the usual: mail and wire fraud, extortion, bribery, and money laundering). Not surprisingly, he turned to Blagojevich, by now the most popular punching bag for indicted criminals in Illinois, in an attempt to claw himself out of trouble. His story—yet another not related to the Tribune incident or the selling of the Senate seat— is that Tony Rezko shook down Mercy Hospital in Rod Blagojevich’s name for campaign money. Most of Levine’s testimony involves conversations with Rezko, who would deal with the funds (Rezko, naturally, denies that any of the money went directly to him). Levine’s testimony is corroborated by Steven Loren, an attorney arrested for meddling in IRS affairs and bribed into talking with yet another shortened sentence.

Levine is one of the more interesting characters in the federal complaint because even the author seems ashamed of his presence there. For one, before testifying he was facing the greatest sentence of all the witnesses (life imprisonment). He admitted to using illegal drugs for about 30 years. The drugs listed are all stimulants (cocaine, ecstasy, crystal meth) except for ketamine, a veterinary drug first popularized by “club kid” Michael Alig, who was a fan of the drug when he butchered his dealer, Angel Melendez, with a hammer, syringe, and Drano in 1996. Perhaps Levine was taking ketamine as well when he committed his crimes: paying bribes, election fraud, tax fraud, and forcing a medical institution out of millions of dollars—the exact thing he accuses Blagojevich of doing against Mercy Hospital— among other things. The author of the complaint bashfully states Levine’s credibility was “vigorously challenged by the defense counsel” of the Rezko trial, hoping to link the failure of the defense to indict an obvious fiend like Rezko to the fact that Levine simply isn’t credible.

Whether because all these characters are now in jail or because the FBI had the foresight not to try and connect them to the bigger accusation, the evidence against Blagojevich for selling the Senate seat consists more of altered defendant quotes such as those discussed previously than witness testimony. Blagojevich himself has said that among the people recorded by the federal wiretap were White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, and maybe even President Obama. Among the bigger names in the indictment, however, is SEIU president and left-wing scandal magnet Andy Stern. No one made anything of it when the story first broke (Glenn Beck was muzzled at CNN back then), but Stern actually “served as an emissary” for an unnamed Senate candidate believed to be Valerie Jarrett to the governor to discuss the possibility of buying the seat. This is where the “three-way deal” was proposed: Andy Stern gives Rod Blagojevich a job after retiring from the governorship, Blagojevich appoints Jarrett to the Senate, and the White House would pay their dues to Stern. Jarrett was never appointed, but the White House certainly seems to be paying back something to Stern. He has been pegged a White House backroom puppetmaster, becoming the most frequent visitor during the first year of the Obama administration. He has also earned a reputation for ruthless authoritarianism. He is openly a fan of “the persuasion of power.” He makes naked threats like “we know where they live” to dissenting voices in his organization. Under his tenure, the SEIU has been responsible for savage beatings for which the criminals have not been held accountable.

Perhaps accusing Stern of having a hand in removing a problematic Democrat—one who refused to raise taxes during his tenure and professed an undying love for Richard Nixon—is a case of the boy who cried wolf. But if he follows a life philosophy that permits the types of comments and behavior his organization is guilty of, perjury does not seem beneath him. Stern does not come off as the kind of person who would be above baiting Blagojevich in conversation to talk about selling the senate seat, only to later have Blagojevich be quoted out of context and taken out of power. This especially if it would benefit an executive he has so much influence over, and if Blagojevich seemed ambivalent about Jarrett’s credentials. The federal complaint points out that the idea of making Blagojevich national director of an SEIU-run union organization, Change to Win, was never Blagojevich’s, but was directed at him through his chief of staff. Since the idea would benefit Jarrett the most, it is implied that the plan must have come from Jarrett or her emissary, Andy Stern. Blagojevich himself demonstrates hesitation at the idea of appointing Jarrett because he does not see her working to benefit the people, and proposes to his chief of staff the idea of an issue advocacy organization to promote “health care and other issues that I care about.”

The FBI does not customarily take a public official down from such a high pedestal without a significant amount of evidence. It is quite likely still that Blagojevich attempted to bend or break a few laws to his benefit. Most public officials, however, do not customarily react to accusations of this magnitude by demanding all the evidence be made public if they are certain of their guilt. Nearly every actor implicated in this affair has reacted atypically, but not least of all in these is the American public. Whether Blagojevich ends up in jail or, like colleague Eliot Spitzer, planning a second career is out of Americans’ hands (he states in his book that he has “not ruled out a career in public service”), but how that public treats him merits review. Analyzing the evidence publicly available in the federal complaint, the FBI doesn’t seem to have the “slam dunk” evidence that made for a better media story than reality. If America as a nation gave him a political pedestal (twice), the very least Blagojevich deserves is a fair look at the evidence. He might even be telling the truth.

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