Looking to Rezko's Future

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jun 17, 2008 2:15PM

One of the persistent questions that political observers have wrestled with about Tony Rezko is when (and if) he will roll on Governor Blagojevich and others now that he has been convicted. Will he cut a deal to get a shorter prison sentence, or will he do his time and hope that his friends will reward his loyalty when he gets out?

Rezko answered that question in part in a letter he sent to Judge Amy St. Eve earlier this year. In the letter, publicized last week, Rezko told St. Eve "prosecutors have been overzealous in pursuing a crime that never happened.... They are pressuring me to tell them the wrong things that I supposedly know about Gov. Blagojevich and Senator Barack Obama." But Rezko's lawyer Joseph Duffy says that he was never interviewed by prosecutors and was never pressured — directly or indirectly — to talk about Blagojevich, Obama or anyone else.

Former prosecutor Zachary Fardon told the Sun-Times that convicted former governor George Ryan's chief of staff Scott Fawell sent a similar letter during his trial. Fawell was the government's star witness in Ryan's trial. Fardon noted that while Rezko could be "effectively [cross examined] on this letter," it wouldn't necessarily exclude him as a witness.