Untitled Document
“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 pleaded guilty last week, finally admitting that
he got his job running the Illinois Finance Authority as a direct result of
campaign contributions to 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worse today — but that was withdrawn after a huge media uproar.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 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 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 whether
he had talked to Ata about a job. Rezko allegedly said that he had. All told, the Blagojevich campaign squeezed $65,000
from 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 of it.
When he was forced out of the IFA, 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
U.S. 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 Chicago 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
federal government’s playbook in Gov. George Ryan’s case.
Remember, the U.S. attorney indicted and convicted Ryan’s campaign
fund under the RICO statutes well before they indicted Ryan himself.
It’s déjà vu all over again. Predictably, the governor’s office flatly
denies that any shenanigans took place. Ata’s guilty plea has shocked even some of the
most hardened, cynical Statehouse types like little I’ve ever seen
— and when the shock wore off a word started spreading through the
crowd that had until now only been whispered on the fringes: “Impeachment.”
Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political
newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2008.
