Posted on 06/27/2010 2:23:14 PM PDT by STARWISE
Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias said Sunday he was subpoenaed by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's defense lawyers to testify at his corruption trial.
Giannoulias name surfaced last week during the trial, where prosecutors were focusing on the charges dealing with Blagojevich trying to sell the Senate seat Barack Obama was vacating after winning the presidential election.
The jury heard a lot about Blagojevich mapping strategy to see what he could get in return for appointing Valerie Jarrett to the Senate. Blagojevich learned, the jury heard on wiretaps, that all Blagojevich would get is "appreciation." Jarrett is now a Senior White House advisor.
Giannoulias told me in an interview on Sunday he reached out to Blagojevich former chief of staff John Harris to promote Jarrett for the Senate.
Giannoulias said he never talked to Blagojevich or Obama about Jarrett and the Senate. He also told me he helped set up a meeting between Jarrett, at the time a close friend and top presidential campaign aide and Illinois labor leader Tom Balanoff to discuss the Senate spot.
Giannoulias name came up last week in the trial, when prosecutors played for the jury a secretly recorded November, 2008 wiretap of a conversation between Blagojevich and Harris, where Harris is heard saying, "Alexi called me."
Harris said Giannoulias "wants to meet with me a few minutes this afternoon. He says it's . . . I said what's it about? He says the (Senate) seat 'but not for me, for someone else.' " Blagojevich never connected with Giannoulias.
Because of the Senate race, where Giannoulias faces Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), the GOP nominee, Republicans are trying to drag Giannoulias into the Blagojevich mess, but this seems like a molehill.
"Despite what the Republicans are trying to say," Giannoulias told me, "I am really not a part of this circus. I think you know I have always thought very highly of Valerie," Giannoulias said.
After the election, Giannoulias told me he "reached out to Harris to give him my thoughts and at a certain point, Tom Balanoff reached out to me to get in touch with Valerie; he did not know how to get ahold of her. I put the two together in the meeting."
The meeting was held in the office of John Rogers, a close friend of then President-elect Barack Obama, wife Michelle and Jarrett. Giannoulas was at the meeting. He said Jarrett was not aggresively pushing for the seat but she wanted to "hear Tom out."
Balanoff, President of both SEIU Local 1 and the SEIU Illinois State Council, a politically powerful union--and major Blagojevich backer--is expected to take the stand on Monday.
It has been known that Balanoff had discussed the Senate appointment with both Obama and Jarrett in addition to having met with Blagojevich.
Giannoulias and Blagojevich were not close; Blagojevich backed a rival in the Democratic primary when Giannoulious ran for treasurer. Giannoulias also called Blagojevich the "anti-Obama" after his 2008 budget address.
Giannoulias disclosed that he was supboenaed during our conversation. A supboena means only that a person may end up testifying at a trial. Monday starts Day 15 of the trial, with the prosecution continuing to make its case, expecting to last about three months.
Giannoulias, the state treasurer, joins a string of other prominent officials Blagojevich's defense team is lining up as potential witnesses to address the selling of the Senate seat charge--Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.) and Jarrett.
UPDATE... As soon as news of the Giannoulias subpoena broke, GOP local and national operatives were e-mailing it around.
Kirk spokesman Kirsten Kukowski said in a statement, "Today's news developments further emphasize the troubling pattern that has emerged concerning Alexi Giannoulias.
As state treasurer, Giannoulias lost more than $70 million in Bright Start college savings funds and his family's bank cost the FDIC nearly $400 million in losses.
Now we've learned Giannoulias' name has come up on federal wire taps talking about the Illinois Senate seat and he has been subpoenaed in former and disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich's public corruption trial. This revelation raises additional questions about Alexi Giannoulias that he needs to answer.
You got me laughing thank you!
Yeah I am with you I am so sick of the pandering to the gays. The gays have never had it so good. They got their guy in office and still nothing is good enough for them.
I think you hit the nail on the head that it is liberalism. I'm sure there are plenty of gays who are against this pandering but I have had enough of it.
I can't imagine what they are going to demand next, maybe straights forced to be towelboys in bathhouses???
I'm just completely disgusted. I'm glad the Bulls, Bears and Sox didn't get involved otherwise there would be steam coming out of my ears.
Thanks for all the information in your posts.
You should have heard Michael Savage go ballistic about him. That guy just has sleaze written all over him.
But this state is so damn crooked why would Bobby Rush get to represent half of Orland Park when his base are welfare bums? The part of Orland that good old Bobby represents is a wealthy area. But thanks to Robbins and the other bastions of welfare bums, he is my poor father's rep.
Atleast my representative can speak proper english and wasn't in a terrorist organization in the 60s, or is a psychotic illegal alien pusher.
I wonder how much money Gutierrez gets from Mexican Drug Lords?
I know Judy is a moderate however, she does have a special place in my heart she called me the day of my mother's funeral from DC asking if there was anything she could do, she sent flowers for the wake, and had a flag fly over the US Capitol Building in honor of my mother (who said no one would go to her funeral...). So yeah that's why I genuinely like and support Judy Biggert. She knows I am far more conservative than she is but the woman does have a heart of gold. And I can honestly say I enjoyed the time I worked for her, but I am much happier as my own boss.
You are very welcome.
“Ok I am going to finally admit it. I am ashamed to be from this state.”
Find a county at least 2 hours away from Chicago with a conservative voting records and hopefully with a nearby/reasonable size city that is still conservative. Check out the people and the elected ones and take a few overnights to discover the people.
My wife has a lot of conservative relatives and friends back in Illinois, and they live at least two hours away with other conservatives. Their main sources of news are the internet and Fox News. Some even have fairly conservative fishwraps.
One of her younger relatives moved to Chicago and became a left wing socialist. The older sister of the ChiTown socialist stayed home, married a conservative and is raising great kids.
We have the same problem in Californicator land. So many conservatives found basically conservative counties and neighborhoods.
Conservative friends in Oregone for the most part live in SW Oregon, which is conservative re voting and a large % of the citizens.
ITEM FBI agents ask about Gutierrez, developer
The Chicago Tribune ^ | May 4, 2010 | Todd Lightly and Robert Becker
FR Posted May 04, 2010 by PBRCat
The FBI has interviewed City Hall employees and Chicago aldermen about U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez's ties to a corrupt developer, according to records and interviews that raise new questions about the congressman amid an ongoing federal investigation. A former alderman convicted in the investigation told FBI agents that Gutierrez boasted of helping his longtime political supporter Calvin Boender obtain a lucrative zoning change for a development on the city's West Side. Another alderman told agents this year she thought Gutierrez was going to buy a home in the development. (Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
ITEMThe same Chicago tax assessor that eliminated Rahm's property taxes, once carried the home of amnesty whore Cong Luis Guiterrez (D-Ill) (a former cab driver) on the tax rolls as a "vacant lot." After the story became public----he argued that Guiterrez should not be penalized for a "clerical error" .... This came after Guiterrez paid minimal taxes for years and years...... b/c Guiterrez' home was listed as a vacant lot.
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ITEM How did Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) get elected?
DID HE CANDIDATES KNOWINGLY ORGANIZE NON-CITIZENS TO FRAUDULENTLY VOTE FOR HIM? DID HE COLLUDE WITH NON-CITIZENS TO RIG ELECTIONS USING FAKE IDENTITIES?
FBI TIP PAGE http://tips.fbi.gov/ (you remin anonymous)
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ITEM Over and above the millions who violate our borders, 1.5 million legal foreign workers come to the US each year, as a matter of course.
But this number isn’t high enough for Dem Cong Gutierrez and his 92 co-sponsors. Their Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill includes a provision called “recapture” that will add up all the supposedly “unused” work visas since 1992 and issue them immediately.
This is a complete fraud, as all unused work visas are rolled over to the family reunification category the next year as it is.
Gutierrez' Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill will create 100,000 visas from countries that send the most illegal immigrants every year. According to the State Department, this will mean 550,000 new foreign workers.
AND GET THIS Mexico is the staging area for Third World and other illegals preparing to violate our borders. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill rewards Mexico b/c they calculatedly promote illegal immigration.
Gutierrez' bill will make it much easier for more illegal aliens to break in. Under the Bill, to prove they have jobs and were in the country BEFORE Congress passed amnesty, illegals are allowed to use stolen ID's, fake green cards, and fraudulent SS numbers....... without fear of prosecution.
Mexico facilitates the profitable staging area for global illegals to cross the border. Contrary to Obama’s claim that CIR bill will increase border security, it does just the opposite.........
<> it guts successful enforcement measures,
<> limits raids on illegal immigrants,
<> prohibits use of troops on the border,
<> replaces E-Verify used to ensure employers hire legal American workers,
<> overturns all state and local US laws that crackdown on illegal immigration,
<> abolishes 287(g) that allows local L/E and federal authorities to apprehend criminal illegals.
Gutierrez makes Van Jones look like a patriot.
Don’t get me started on the FALN. They could have killed my mom and her uncle at the Merchandise Mart.
She’s acceptable. She could’ve been a Senate candidate that I’m sure would be fine with the RINOs yet okay to us. Though she’s over 70.
Eh, I wouldn't say Senate candidate, maybe governor but I'd rather have Brady by far. For this year's senate race though I would pray it would be Judy instead of Kirk.
I probably shouldn't be sharing this with ya'll since it was off the record so I'll be careful with my words, but Judy is not a big fan of Nancy Pelosi and libs in general. But she specifically does not like Nancy Pelosi, she had me laughing quite a few times in regards to Nancy Pelosi.
Good for her.
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