Get Fitzgerald! (Round Two)Last week, prosecutors in the trial of Tony Rezko revealed that a government witness would testify that Rezko had said he was plotting to get U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald canned. His buddy and Republican bigwig Robert Kjellander was in talks with Karl Rove, the story goes.
Both Rove and Kjellander denied ever speaking of canning Fitzgerald, and the plot did seem to fall somewhat short. The alleged plotting happened back in 2004, right when Fitzgerald was in the thick of the Valerie Plame leak investigation. As I said last week, it would have been an unbelievably bold move even for Rove. Nevertheless, it does appear that Kjellander would have been looking for any opening to get rid of Fitzgerald.
Today the Rezko trial brought another aspect of the somewhat hapless plot:
Tony Rezko associate Elie Maloof just testified that when he received a grand jury subpoena, Rezko told him not to talk to the feds. Why?“The federal prosecutor will no longer be the same federal prosecutor,” Maloof just testified that Rezko told him. What did Rezko mean, prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked.
“That Patrick Fitzgerald would be terminated and Dennis Hastert will name his replacement. The investigation will be over.”
Maloof said Rezko told him of Fitzgerald’s replacement: “That they will order the prosecutor to stop the investigation.”
Unfortunately for Rezko, four years later Fitzgerald is still plugging away.