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Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was again drawn into Tony Rezko's corruption trial on Monday, when the prosecution's star witness placed Obama at a party for an Iraqi-born billionaire who was later barred entry to the United States."
Tony Rezko is an Obama friend and financial support who now is a defendant in at least a dozen lawsuits. His trial is going on in Chicago on charges of corruption and fraud.
Rezko helped friend and Senator Barack Obama to buy his Chicago dream house. At the time Obama entered into the real estate agreement with Rezko, Obama knew Rezko was being investigated for corruption and fraud.
The Rezkos bought the empty lot next door and sold part of it to Obama for $300,000 less than it was worth.
Rezko has been an Obama contributor and supporter for many years. Obama says that the real estate deal with the Rezkos was "a mistake."
A New York Times story recently wondered aloud why (Rezko) "would plunge into a real estate investment whose biggest beneficiary appears to have been Mr. Obama" at a time when he was being pursued by creditors for $10 million" of fraudulently obtained money.
Obama has repeatedly said that he cannot recollect any meeting with Auchi, a London-based businessman who is appealing a conviction for fraud in France. According to Stuart Levine, a former Rezko lawyer, both Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were among the guests at a April 3, 2004 party at Rezko's Chicago home for Auchi. At that time, Rezko was trying to impress Auchi with his political connections.
Was Obama's "mistake" a situation in which greed overcame the "good judgment" he vaunts on the campaign trail? In the Chicago world of quid pro quo, this land deal and the continuing smokescreen and lying by the Obama campaign raises a lot of questions. It is high time that the media entered "Fortress Obama" to get the answers. The Obama campaign has been closed, secretive, and not very welcoming to reporters who would like to contact Obama people with direct knowledge of the Obama Rezko Auchi connections.
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