Former Obama booster faces charges

CHICAGO -- On Tuesday, Barack Obama hopes to beat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Texas and Ohio primaries. On that same day, prosecutors and defense lawyers are expected to be in their second day of selecting a jury to decide the fate of Tony Rezko, a Chicago businessman who nurtured Obama's career as a lawyer and politician.

In this city's latest high-profile corruption case, Rezko is accused of extortion for peddling influence in Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration. The federal trial could last through June, but Obama's aides do not believe it will have serious impact on the campaign.

"Rezko has been a friend and supporter [of Obama's], as he has been with many politicians," said Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod. "It's always easy in retrospect to say this or that should been a warning flag."

Obama is not implicated, and Blagojevich, who is not charged, denies wrongdoing.

But U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve made it likely that Obama's name will come up by ruling that prosecutors may introduce evidence that Rezko used straw donors to make donations to politicians, apparently including Obama.

Obama and Rezko met in 1990 when Rezko noticed a news article about Obama being elected as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Rezko offered him a job, which Obama declined. Their paths soon would cross again -- and become an issue in the campaign.

In a January debate, Clinton jabbed Obama over his legal representation of Rezko "in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

Obama shook his head and said the characterization was not accurate.

Obama represented the nonprofit Woodlawn Preservation and Investment, founded by Bishop Arthur Brazier. Woodlawn was partners with Rezko in four low-income housing projects with hundreds of units. In at least one instance, in 1994, Obama represented Woodlawn on a troubled project it later shared with Rezko.

In 1995, Obama announced his run for the Illinois state senate, and Rezko was there to help, donating the first $2,000 in July 1995.

Judson Miner, head of Obama's old law firm, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, Brazier and others say there was no indication in the 1990s and beginning of this decade that Rezko's practices were questionable.

In 2003 and 2004, Obama's relationship with Rezko grew particularly strong.

Obama was a junior state senator who decided to mount an improbable campaign for the U.S. Senate. Aides recall that to convince pundits he was serious, Obama aimed to amass $1 million in donations by June 2003.

Rezko stepped up, feting Obama at a fundraiser in mid-2003. Obama ended June 2003 with $1.07 million.

Between the first $2,000 state-senate donation and the 2004 U.S. Senate race, Rezko raised at least $200,000 for him, a Times analysis shows. Obama, seeking to distance himself from his patron, has donated $160,000 in Rezko-related donations to charity.

In court documents, prosecutors suggest Rezko skirted the law to help Obama, albeit without Obama's knowledge. Having donated the maximum allowed, Rezko allegedly gave money to at least two associates to make separate $10,000 contributions, one in December 2003 and another in March 2004.

By then, questions were being raised about Rezko, who had been one of Blagojevich's biggest benefactors. Soon after being sworn into the Senate in 2005, Obama was preparing to buy a family home near the University of Chicago. Rezko, by now linked in news stories to a federal investigation, was there to help. At Obama's invitation, Rezko and Obama spent 15 to 30 minutes walking around the corner lot, Obama's aides said recently.

Obama subsequently bought the home for $1.65 million, $300,000 below the original asking price. The sellers owned a vacant lot next to the Obama property and needed to sell it to close the deal.

Rezko stepped forward, paying the full $625,000 asking price for the lot.

As Obama prepared to run for the presidency, the senator told Chicago reporters his dealings were "boneheaded" and raised the appearance of favoritism.