CHICAGO — A government witness testified Monday that political fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko told him three years ago that the chief federal prosecutor in Chicago would be fired and replaced by someone chosen by then-U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Restaurant owner Elie Maloof quoted Rezko as saying the new U.S. attorney in Chicago would then kill the federal investigation into corruption under Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
“The federal prosecutor would no longer be the federal prosecutor; Patrick Fitzgerald would be eliminated,” Maloof said at Rezko’s fraud trial.
Maloof’s testimony Monday was the first time Hastert’s name has come up in testimony.
There was no immediate response to a call to Hastert’s office seeking comment Monday.
Since taking over as U.S. attorney in September 2001, Fitzgerald has launched a vigorous attack on corruption, sending former Gov. George Ryan and a number of other political insiders to federal prison.
Prosecutors told the judge last week that former Illinois Finance Authority executive director Ali Ata, who will take the witness stand later in the trial, would testify that he had a talk with Rezko about efforts to replace Fitzgerald by Springfield lobbyist Robert Kjellander and former presidential adviser Karl Rove.
Kjellander denied that he ever discussed such a thing and Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, said his client had no memory of such discussions.
Rezko, 52, is charged with scheming to split a $1.5 million bribe from a contractor who wanted state permission to build a hospital and pressure kickbacks out of money management firms seeking to do business with a state pension fund.
