Natasha Korecki - Only in Chicago: How the Rod Blagojevich Scandal Engulfed Illinois; Embroiled Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Jesse J

On my second day on the job at the Chicago Sun-Times in 2004, I was asked to run over to the federal courthouse to back up another reporter. Two governors later, Im still on the beat.

Its safe to say in my time in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Ive seen a healthy variety of disgraced public officials, public workers, businessmen, and private citizens stand before a judge and face charges. In 20052006, I covered what was then considered an historic trial of former Governor George Ryan. Amazingly, a few years later, a different governorone who had run on the platform of reformwas standing in front of me in a criminal courtroom.

Thats one of the reasons that Only in Chicago seemed such a fitting title for this book. Even before the Rod Blagojevich case came along, there were times when I felt I could end the story I was writing for the newspaper with those three words.

After Blagojevich was charged in 2008, it was hard to deny this case was like none the state had seen before. I began writing The Blago Blog, for the Sun-Times , where I detailed day-to-day happenings on the investigation into Blagojevich and others, and documented Blagojevichs trips to court, his bizarre news conferences, and his brush with reality TV. I later reported on both Blagojevichs first trial and his retrial for the Sun-Times , where we fed readers appetite for instant news. That often meant giving up-to-the-minute updates on the blog and Twitter. Getting it down in real time in such detail helped immensely when I got a call last December from Doug Seibold, the president of Agate, expressing interest in a Blagojevich book.

The case of Rod Blagojevich was stunning in and of itself, but theres something people too often overlook. Blagojevich didnt operate in a vacuum. Blagojevich had advisers and ex-advisers who were willing to feed his ego and egg him on, or at the very least, who werent brave enough to tell him when he had strayed way off course.

Blagojevichs power in the state diminished as it became well known that his administration was under federal scrutiny. But once it was clear he had the power to appoint Barack Obamas successor as U.S. senator from Illinois, there were plenty of people whose political aspirations drew them too close to the Blagojevich fire. Not surprisingly, many of them got burned. Close advisers and fundraisers were charged, convicted, and saw prison time. The political careers of those who werent chargedsome of the most powerful men in the countrywere forever tainted. That included Roland Burris, Blagojevichs eventual appointment to the U.S. Senate, and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who had repeatedly tried to outrun the dark cloud that the Blagojevich case cast over him.

Plenty of others were politically singed. Obama himself called a union rep the day before he was elected to be leader of the free world, to give him the OK to talk to Blagojevich about his friend Valerie Jarrett for appointment to his Senate seat. Rahm Emanuel, then an outgoing U.S. congressman and incoming White House chief of staff, was caught on tape trying to handpick his own successor.

About 30 percent of this book uses material as it appeared on the blog or in the paper.

In other cases, I obtained copies of court transcripts, conducted follow-up interviews, rewrote other passages, and dug down for more details to flesh out other parts of the story. In the chapters involving Christopher Kelly and Jesse Jackson Jr., I used a research assistant, Lark Turner, who covered the second Blagojevich trial with me as part of an internship at the Sun-Times . We relied heavily on the police report involving Kellys death. I also attended Kellys funeral as a reporter for the newspaper.

In the Jackson and Burris chapters, I drew information from a series of interviews I conducted while working with the Sun-Times . For the readers sake, I do not end various paragraphs with sources said, in those chapters or in others, so as not to slow down the narrative with repeated attribution.

Besides covering these events in real time as a reporter for the Sun-Times , I have interviewed more than 100 people, including central players in the scandal, throughout my time covering Blagojevich and the related investigations. Ive obtained hundreds of documents in that time and gone over dozens of recordings, phone records, and official government schedules as well as emails and transcripts.

• Rod Blagojevich: Elected governor of Illinois in 2002 and 2006. He ran for office after holding elected positions in the Illinois statehouse as well as the U.S. Congress. Early in his career as governor he raised heaps of campaign cash at lightning speed, and soon he was under scrutiny for handing out positions in his administration in exchange for campaign donations. In a spectacular wiretap investigation, Blagojevich was subsequently accused of trying to sell Barack Obamas vacant Senate seat.
• Barack Obama: U.S. senator from Illinois whose impending election to the presidency meant the remaining term on his Senate seat would be filled by appointment. Obamas political ascent launched a flurry of horse-trading and jockeying to be named to replace him. The person with the sole power to appoint his successor was the governor of IllinoisRod Blagojevich.
• Christopher Kelly: The owner a roofing company, he was the unlikely co-architect of Blagojevichs fundraising strategies. He became known as the governors go-to money guy and was accused of demanding campaign contributions from firms that wanted to do business with the state. An avid gambler, he was named by Blagojevich to head up Illinois gaming issues. He was indicted three times before he ultimately took his own life.
• Tony Rezko: A Syrian national with a rags-to-riches life story, this deep-pocketed businessman was known to pick political rising stars. Once a friend and donor to Barack Obama, Rezko likewise befriended Blagojevich and quickly grew to be a close adviser, strategist, and fundraiser. He was accused of controlling state boards along with Stuart Levine and of scheming to get kickbacks off of state deals. He was convicted in 2008 and is serving a ten-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
• Stuart Levine: Wealthy North Shore-based member of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board and the Teachers Retirement System board, he was also a serial scam artist who led a secret life that involved snorting crystal meth at a sketchy hotel in all-night drug parties with other men. A wiretap on his phone revealed he was scheming to extract kickbacks in exchange for steering votes on the state boards. Levine, once worth $70 million, personally knew some of the most significant backroom dealers in Illinois. Levine was the marquee witness against Rezko and, later, businessman William Cellini. Prosecutors called him one of the most significant cooperators in Chicagos federal courthouse in 30 years.