Posted on 01/05/2009 3:38:01 PM PST by TheBigJ
Judicial Watch Obtains Documents Re: Blagojevich Contacts with Obama and Transition Team Contact: Press Office 202-646-5188
Washington, DC -- January 5, 2009 Includes December 3, 2008, Letter to "Rod" Signed by Obama
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the office of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich through the Freedom of Information Act related to Blagojevich's contacts with President-elect Obama and his transition team. The documents include a December 3, 2008, letter from Barack Obama following his December 2, 2008, meeting with Blagojevich as well as a November 17, 2008, letter signed by Presidential Transition Team co-chairs Valerie Jarrett and John Podesta providing Blagojevich with a list of transition team contacts.
The following are excerpts from the letter signed by President-elect Obama on December 3, 2008, less than one week before authorities arrested Blagojevich for attempting to "sell" Obama’s now-vacant Senate seat, among other corruption charges:
* "Thank you for meeting with me on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Vice President-elect Joe Biden and I were pleased with the open discussion." * "As we discussed, I would appreciate any advice you can provide to me and my team on the biggest roadblocks to states in moving forward in ‘getting ready to go' projects started quickly." * "In addition, I welcome any advice you can provide me and my team on revitalizing and reinvigorating the state-federal partnership. I want to make it a priority of my Administration to work closely with you." * "I look forward to working with you and hitting the ground running on January 20th."
The November 17, 2008, letter signed by Jarrett and Podesta states:
"On behalf of President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden we want you to know of our strong interest in working with you in the months to come. As you may know we have formed a Presidential Transition Team so that the new Administration will be prepared to confront the extraordinary challenges facing our country. Your leadership and experience will be invaluable in this effort and we hope you will not hesitate to share your insights during this process."
"These documents tend to undermine Obama's claims that he had no contact with Blagojevich and suggest his transition is hiding documents about such contacts," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Why did President-elect Obama not release this letter? What else is he hiding?"
Ummm, is this as big as I think it is? Remember "NO" meetings?
Ah, yeah it’s big but Obama can do no wrong so forget you ever read this.
sorry, dead woman, live guy-it does not matter what they find, obama is not to be touch for at least a year, IMO.
And Obama’s voters bought into his “transparency” sham. Suckahs!
If this is all there is, there’s no story. Vague “we look forward to you sharing your ideas” sent to a sitting governor is meaningless nonsense and hardly the stuff of scandal. My hunch is that this thing was rushed forward because the powers that be realized that if it lingered Obama could just get himself implicated so they sprung the trap before the full case was made. Consequently Obama is at worst going to lose some of his luster as mister idealism.
He kept saying there were no meetings. Axlerod, who claimed there was a meeting said he “misspoke”. The local media pulled a story reporting on the meeting but some bloggers saved the page before the story was pulled. I hope this gets legs....
It’s official, Blago’s gonna skate.
It appears JW obtained these letters with little or no difficulty.
Blago promised to fight, fight, fight......and we'll see evidence of it in many little ways in the weeks to come.
Leni
“I want to make it a priority of my Administration to work closely with you.” * “I look forward to working with you and hitting the ground running on January 20th.””
Oh...ya gotta like that!
Popcorn!
““I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so we were not — I was not aware of what was happening, and as I said it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.””
-—Obama
Meaningless. Worthless. Useless.
Didn’t Obama meet with all the democrat governors at their association meeting? It was a group thing as I recall, and this is most likely a form letter sent to all the governors in attendance. DRAT!
Blago’s gonna sing - PING.
Welcome to Free Republic.
I think you are probably right.
vs
"As I said in a press conference last week, I had no contact with the governor's office and I had no contact with anybody in the governor's office.
Obama-Monday, December 15
It's a letter acknowledging a meeting, when Obama has stated that there were no meetings.
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