Monday, in an interview with reporters in Peoria, Senator Roland Burris made significant new admissions concerning his interactions with former Governor Blagojevich's associates prior to his appointment as replacement senator. Specifically, Burris detailed two conversations with Blagojevich's brother Rob.
According to the Chicago Sun Times transcript of Burris' statement, he admitted that before the December election he raised the issue of the senate seat with Blagojevich's brother at the same time the brother asked Burris about fund-raising for the governor:
"The governor’s brother’s on a routine fund-raising call indicated, ‘I am now the new fund-raiser for the governor, and Roland you’ve been helpful for us in the past,’ and I said, ‘Yes, you know, I’ve certainly tried to work with the governor. I’ve tried to help you all. A lot of people didn’t.'"
“And he says, ‘We need to raise some funds. We hope that you could probably get some of your friends together.' I said, ‘What type of money we looking for?’ He says, ‘Can you raise us 10 or 15 thousand dollars?’
“I said, ‘I don’t know but I can’t do it now because we are in the midst of an election. Call me after the election.’ He said, ‘Fine.’"
“So some time shortly after Obama was elected, the brother called. And now in the meantime, I’d talked to some people about trying to see if we could put a fund-raiser on. Nobody was—they said we aren’t giving money to the governor. And I said, ‘OK, you know, I can’t tell them what to do with their money.’"
“So when the brother called me back, I said, ‘Well, look Rob...I can’t raise any money from my friends. I said, maybe my partner and I, you can talk this over and see, could we go to some other people that we might be able to talk to that would help us out if we give--because we give a fund-raiser in the law office, nobody going to show up. We’ll probably have a thousand dollars for you or something to that effect.'"
“Oh, by the way, in that first conversation with him (Rob in October), so that part is where I raise a question about the Senate seat with him. But no other time do we talk about the Senate seat. So then we came back, and when he called me back the third time, because I went to talk to my partner, and we then assessed the situation and said, ‘Look, you know, I’m interested in the Senate seat. I can’t raise any money for him.’ And so he called me back and I told him back and I told him that. I said, 'No. 1, I can’t raise any money for you and I can’t give you any money because I don’t want to have a conflict.' I mean, that should give some indication of my commitment right there to get out of pay to play and they're still trying to tie me in to pay to play.”
This is a startling -- though with what we've come to know about Chicago politics, not surprising -- admission. The fact that all of this was withheld from the Illinois House Impeachment committee during Burris' testimony has to raise questions about potential perjury charges. At the very least, it certainly is consistent with the initial reaction to his appointment -- that any selection by Blagojevich was tainted and should never have been approved.
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