 April 15, 2008
Posted: 07:50 AM ET
From CNN's Nick McGurk CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) – In a moment sure to irritate the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, the senator's name came up again in the trial of his one-time fund-raiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. The testimony put Obama at Rezko's house for a party whose guest of honor was someone Obama has said he can't recall ever meeting. Rezko is charged with influence-peddling and shakedowns in connection with Illinois state government. Obama is not charged with any wrongdoing. Monday, as morning testimony was nearing the lunch break, Rezko's defense attorney, Joseph J. Duffy, was still plowing through his seventh day of cross-examining the government's star witness, Stuart Levine. Duffy, who has been methodically trying to establish instances in which Levine has lied to the government, asked Levine about a party held at Rezko's house in honor of an Iraqi-British businessman Nadhmi Auchi, who has been convicted of fraud in France — where he is appealing his sentence — and is suspected of doing business with Saddam Hussein when Hussein was ruling Iraq.
Duffy's questioning got into the area of top Illinois government officials being at the party, which took place on April 3, 2004. "Mr. and Mrs. Obama were there?" Duffy asked. Levine answered yes. Duffy didn't ask again about the Obamas. Ben Labolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, repeated the candidate's earlier denials of knowing Auchi. "As he has said previously, Senator Obama does not recall meeting Nadhmi Auchi at any time or on any occasion, and this includes any event that may have been held for Mr. Auchi. Senator and Mrs. Obama have no recollection of attending any such event." To be sure, after this much cross-examination, Levine, an admitted drug user, has acknowledged several memory lapses and has, according to The Associated Press, mentioned this party without mentioning Obama. In addition to connecting Obama to Auchi, mention of Obama's name in the Rezko trial raises another headache for the Obama campaign because it allows critics to raise a "boneheaded mistake" Obama has admitted to: the purchase of a house and nearby plot of land with Rezko, at a time when Rezko was already under the federal scrutiny that resulted in this trial. The 2004 party came shortly after Obama's upset win in the Democratic primary for the Illinois Senate seat. The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta/+1-404-827-5872 Filed under: Barack Obama |
 
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