"It
had better be a job where you can make some money."
That,
apparently, was what Gov. Rod Blagojevich told Ali Ata about Ata's quest for a
state job during Blagojevich's Navy Pier fundraiser in 2003 - an event that
pulled in almost $4 million for the governor and appears to have put
Blagojevich and his campaign fund in extreme legal jeopardy.
Ata, you
most certainly know, pled guilty last week. He finally admitted that he got his
job running the Illinois Finance Authority as a direct result of campaign contributions
to Gov. Blagojevich. Ata resigned his post under fire after an Auditor
General's Report found some serious problems with the IFA. The Authority tried
to give him a golden parachute - a three-year contract that looked like hush
money back then and looks even worse today - but that was withdrawn after a
huge media uproar.
Some of the
Ata plea details are right out of a gangster movie.
Back in
September of 2002, during the heat of Blagojevich's first campaign for
governor, Ata allegedly arrived at Tony Rezko's office with yet another huge
campaign contribution for Blagojevich, handed Rezko the $25,000 check in an
envelope, was then ushered into a conference room where, lo and behold, there
sat Rod Blagojevich himself. Rezko, the ever loyal birddog, then allegedly
dropped the check on the conference table in front of Blagojevich and told the
candidate that Ata wanted a job after the election. Blagojevich allegedly
"expressed his pleasure," acknowledged that Ata had been a "good
supporter" and a "good friend" and asked Rezko if he had talked
to Ata about a job. Rezko allegedly said he had.
All told,
the Blagojevich campaign squeezed $65,000 out of this pigeon, which may be why
Blagojevich made that wisecrack about getting Ata a big-money job during his
Navy Pier funder. They plucked him clean.
Rezko
allegedly shook Ata down for another $125,000 in cash bribes during 2003 and
2004. Ata allegedly paid the cash because he was desperate to keep a state
lease on one of his properties. Rezko was his alleged fixer. But we don't know
yet whether Rezko kept all of the alleged ill-gotten gain for himself, or
redistributed some of the money to others up or down the food chain. I shudder
to think.
When he was
forced out of the Illinois Finance Authority, Ata strenuously and repeatedly
denied that his campaign contributions to Blagojevich had anything whatsoever
to do with his appointment. He told the same thing to the feds when they came
calling. But that story didn't last.
"[Ata]
did receive something for those contributions," last week's plea agreement
reads, "specifically employment with a state agency." That's the US
Attorney talking, not Ata. Kaboom.
Combine
Ata's guilty plea with Joe Cari's statement under oath in the Tony Rezko
corruption trial that Blagojevich boasted openly of trading contracts and
appointments for contributions, and the drug-addled Stu Levine's testimony
about how Blagojevich spoke of the same thing to him (while telling Levine to
never speak of the topic with him again and to go through Rezko from then on),
plus numerous other allegations that have been bandied about over the years
(including Ald. Dick Mell's withdrawn charge that the administration was
selling appointments for contributions) and a strong case is being built
against the governor and his campaign fund.
In fact,
this looks like something right out of the federales' George Ryan playbook.
Remember, the US Attorney indicted and convicted Ryan's campaign fund under the
RICO statutes well before they indicted Ryan himself. It's deja vu all over
again.
Predictably,
the governor's office flatly denies that any shenanigans took place. This is
the same governor, however, who continues to deny that he is "Public
Official A," despite all evidence to the contrary. Some of the allegations
may be overblown, many may even be outright false, but once you start lying in
this business you won't be believed about anything, and this administration has
collectively been a serial prevaricator.
Ata's
guilty plea has shocked even some of the most hardened, cynical Statehouse
types like little I've ever seen before. And when the shock wore off, a word
started spreading through the crowd that had until now only been whispered on
the fringes.
"Impeachment."
Stay tuned.
-30-
Rich Miller
also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.