Feds believe Jesse Jackson Jr. got tip about probe into his finances

Sources with knowledge of the probe told the Chicago Sun-Times that investigators believe Jackson had learned of the federal scrutiny of his financial activity prior to his June 10 leave from Congress.

The sources said it didn’t necessarily mean the tip was from an investigative source, saying it was possible the congressman received a tip from someone who was notified about the probe, possibly through a subpoena.

While Jackson, a South Shore Democrat, eventually released information concerning his health, he did not publicly disclose he had knowledge of the federal probe until last Wednesday — the day he submitted a resignation letter to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.

Though he took a leave from his post on June 10, Jackson did not reveal his absence from Congress for two weeks. Then, just before a filing deadline for possible opponents in the Nov. 6 election, his office issued a three-sentence release saying he had been absent because he suffered from exhaustion.

Jackson did not disclose his whereabouts until the Sun-Times reported earlier this year that he was admitted to Mayo Clinic.

The clinic later released a statement on behalf of the family, indicating that he suffered from bipolar depression.

“During this journey I have made my share of mistakes. I am aware of the ongoing federal investigation into my activities and I am doing my best to address the situation responsibly, cooperate with the investigators, and accept responsibility for my mistakes, for they are my mistakes and mine alone,” Jackson wrote in his letter.

“None of us is immune from our share of shortcomings or human frailties and I pray that I will be remembered for what I did right. It has been a profound honor to serve the constituents of Illinois’s Second Congressional District.”

The Sun-Times first revealed in October that Jackson was under federal scrutiny in a financial probe unrelated to the Rod Blagojevich scandal.

Information has previously surfaced suggesting that Jackson had knowledge about a federal probe before it was made public. That happened in 2008, when then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich was under investigation. Secret recordings indicate that Blagojevich believed Jackson promised — through emissaries — $1.5 million in campaign contributions if Blagojevich appointed Jackson to Barack Obama’s newly vacated U.S. Senate seat.

While the probe into the Senate seat was still secret, Jackson allegedly called a donor and friend, Raghuveer Nayak. Nayak told authorities that after Jackson directed him to make a money offer for the Senate seat to Blagojevich.

Then, weeks later, Nayak told authorities that he later received a subsequent communication from Jackson. Nayak said Jackson called to warn him off of making a pay-to-play offer with Blagojevich because there was a federal investigation into the U.S. Senate seat selection. A second person, Rajinder Bedi, told authorities that back in November 2008, Nayak called him to relay his conversation with Jackson about an ongoing probe, the Sun-Times has reported.

The statement to authorities suggested that Jackson learned of an investigation even as he was a possible target of scrutiny for the government.

Federal authorities as recently as two weeks ago where still examining Jackson’s finances — a review that has included activity involving Jackson’s wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th). Broad, sweeping subpoenas were issued in the Jackson investigation, including to financial institutions that controlled Jackson accounts both in and out of Washington, D.C., the source said.

The Sun-Times also first reported that Jackson was attempting to negotiate a plea deal. Jackson’s attorneys — which includes Reid Weingarten in Washington D.C. and Webb in Chicago — last week for the first time publicly confirmed that he was cooperating with authorities and attempting to find a resolution, something that could take months.

Golly, I sure hope JJJr's travails do not impact on Daddy JJ's plans to loot the US Treasury......and besides, who knew a vote was an "investment." Somebody oughta check the Constitution (/snicker).

Rev Jesse Jackson: Black Voters Deserve A Return On Election ‘Investment’
WBBM-AM ^ | November 10, 2012 / FR Posted by 2ndDivisionVe

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday said that President Obama’s reelection was “a great victory,” but that it would be incomplete with a reconstruction of urban America and an investment in the communities where the blacks who voted overwhelmingly for the president live.

“We’re happy and full of pride,” in the president’s reelection, Jackson told the crowd at the Saturday morning forum at Rainbow/PUSH headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., “but our houses remain raggedy … our schools remain closed.”

Despite attempts at voter suppression in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, Jackson said, blacks turned out en masse to vote, enduring waits that stretched into hours in many places. “We waited, we voted, we believed,” Jackson said. “Now we want to get well.

“We voted early, we voted long. Our votes won,” he said. Rev. Jackson, who spoke longer, louder, and more forcefully than he has in some time at the Saturday morning Rainbow/PUSH meeting, asked the crowd, “What do we want? We want, we want, we want, we deserve, we deserve … a return on our investment. “What’s good for us is good for everybody. What’s good for blacks is good for everybody,” he said. “We bled too much, we died too young, we cried too much, we prayed too long, now we want a return on our investment.”

Referring to those voter suppression efforts, he said, “these acts of meanness had unintended consequences.” Rather than keeping blacks and Latinos away from the polls, voter ID measures and the curtailing of access to the voting booths made people more determined to vote. “Suppression became stimulation and people fought back,” he said.

“We fought back,” and the battle was won, but the war still remains, he said. “If we vote and don’t bargain we get nothing. A Jacuzzi filled with stagnant water will not get you well,” Jackson said. “You have to stir the water.” Jackson said blacks, who voted for Barack Obama for state senator, for U.S. Senator, and now twice as President of the United States, should demand, bargain, and march if necessary, for an end to “patterns of race discrimination, (for) our share of jobs. We want faster public transportation to connect us to where the jobs are.”

He said black American also needs “access to capital,” noting, “It’s cruel to say. ‘jump in the pool,’ when there is no water. “

He also called for “fair trade,” a “domestic trade zone. We need a domestic OPEC,” he said. “In Chicago, for example, there are 100,000 vacant homes or abandoned lots; 40,000 in Baltimore. If we were to rebuild 25 percent, if we take down the boards and put in window panes, fix the broken sidewalks, cut the grass, fix the roofing, we’d create more jobs than there are people, just rebuilding where we live.”

Jackson said, “there must be a plan for reconstruction” of urban America. Saying that automobile companies and banks got bailouts, “we’re the people who provided the votes — we want to be bailed out. We need jobs, education, healthcare now. If we can be targeted for voter registration and voter turnout, target us for reconstruction, now.

“We are the new mainstream,” Jackson said. “We are the America of shared hopes and shared dreams. We have the power, we have the votes. “We waited, we voted, we believed, now we want to get well.” He then asked the crowd, “Do you want to get well? Are you willing to fight to get well?

“It’s time to sing a new song, of joy and hope,” Jackson said. “It’s time to march again. March for healthcare, march for jobs. When we march great things come our way. “

(Sniffle) It's nice to know Chicago is going all out for it's favorite son (sob): O's ex-COS, CHI/MAYOR RAHM did a graceful plie and
explained CHICAGO's tolerant and compassionate values.

" We're bringing fried chicken and watermelon salsa to Jesse Jr,
convalescing at Mayo b/c he screwed up buying Obama's Senate seat."

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Other than robo-calls----JJJ did not campaign but still paid his wife Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson (who lives in DC)---and her political consulting firm---- $5000.00 per month the last four months.

JJJ's "campaign" expenses since 2011 show he's spent $1 million, about the same as Rep. Biggert's $1.1 million and Rep. Dold's $1.6 million, in competitive races.....well above the roughly $300,000 each other Reps spent in two years.

"I'm only human but my wife---she's a frickin' *itch."
"She da one puttin' me away at dat dang Mayo place."

"She's *issed off cause I'm gettin' it on the side while
makin' like I was sickly. Dam *itch wants me outta da way."

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As everyone who grew in in Chicago knows, this is politics, the Chicago Way.The Democratic Machine has long perfected the art of taking care of it’s own. You know, like giving Michelle Obama a high paying no-show job that was not needed after she went to DC, like Tony Reszko (Syrian swindler) buying the parcel adjoining Obama’s house in Hyde Park and donating it to him. Some might call that bribery.......but it is legal in Chicago).

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You could be a diehard Republican and vote that way your whole life---but once you're dead in Chicage you vote the straight Dem ticket.

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