Rezko: Feds pushed for dirt on Obama

By KENNETH P. VOGEL

Rezko was a prominent fundraiser for Obama's campaigns for state Senate, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, though not for Obama's presidential campaign. Photo: AP

Imprisoned Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko has accused federal prosecutors of improperly pressuring him to implicate Barack Obama in a corruption case.

In a letter to the U.S. District judge who presided over his trial, Rezko, who was convicted this month of 16 corruption-related counts, including fraud and money laundering, called prosecutors "overzealous." And he singled out what he said were their efforts to get him to turn on Obama, an Illinois senator and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

"They are pressuring me to tell them the 'wrong' things that I supposedly know about Gov. Blagojevich and Sen. Obama," Rezko wrote in an undated letter released by the court this week. "I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the governor or the senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people."

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, wouldn't comment on Rezko's allegation.

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