Just Too Good To Be True

Just Too Good To Be True

Not the implications that Obama has some skeletons in the closet, but the prospect of Rezko turning before the election. From the September 27, 2008 Chicago Sun-Times (thanks to Crime File News for the pointer):

Just weeks before he is to be sentenced, political fund-raiser Tony Rezko is in the midst of intense discussions with federal investigators, sources close to the investigation confirmed to the Chicago Sun-Times.
There’s no question federal authorities are interested in Rezko, a former top adviser and fundraiser to Gov. Blagojevich, as a federal witness. But one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, warned it’s too early to call the discussions full-fledged cooperation.
Already, however, Rezko has provided information to the feds, who are in the process of vetting it, sources said.
...
The implications of Rezko’s cooperation are innumerable. His reach as a businessman, political adviser, real estate mogul and political fundraiser has the potential to take federal authorities from Springfield to Iraq.
Rezko not only was privy to inside meetings with the governor, but engaged in numerous real estate dealings with his wife, Patti.
The governor’s office has denied that the first lady’s business dealings with Rezko had anything to do with his influence in her husband’s administration.
Federal authorities have long sought Rezko’s cooperation in their ongoing probe into the governor.
A few months before his conviction, Rezko wrote a letter saying prosecutors were pressuring him to give them information on Blagojevich and White House hopeful Barack Obama. At that time, Duffy told the Sun-Times that Rezko had never met with, or spoken to prosecutors.
One source with knowledge of the investigation into the governor and into his wife Patti Blagojevich’s real estate dealings say the probe is going “at top speed.”

The fact is that a non-corrupt Chicago politician is in the leprechaun category: theoretically possible, but so unlikely that I won't generally worry about it. U.S. Attorney are appointed by the President, and are generally political animals. Even if Rezko didn't have any dirt on Obama (which is most unlikely), the U.S. Attorney would have a powerful incentive to find something--and Rezko, who has not yet been sentenced, has a powerful incentive to come up with something.

This is a serious problem with plea bargains, sentence recommendations, and all the rest of the deals that get made in criminal prosecutions. It creates enormous incentives to deceive and mislead. But it also creates enormous incentives to expose corruption that might otherwise not come to light.