Wow, more background info on one of Obama’s mentors… The guy whose campaign Obama was enthusiastically involved in… ABC Chicago
The ABC7 I-Team has learned that an attorney who went undercover for the FBI in the late 1980′s says he told federal authorities years ago about wrongdoing by Blagojevich.
His name is Robert Cooley.
Cooley was a criminal defense lawyer in Chicago in the late 1980′s who became one of the most potent witnesses against Chicago corruption, testifying for federal prosecutors in cases that resulted in dozens of convictions.
Cooley says that before Rod Blagojevich got into politics he was a bookmaker on the North Side who regularly paid the Chicago mob to operate.
On Tuesday, Cooley spoke on the record.
He told ABC7 that Mr. Blagojevich regularly paid a so-called street tax to Robert “Bobby the Boxer” Abbinanti, a convicted outfit gambling collector. In the early 1980′s, Abbinanti was working for convicted West Side mob boss Marco D’amico. Bookies pay street taxes to the crime syndicate in exchange for being allowed to operate such a racket.
“I predicted five years ago when he ran the first time that he was a hands on person who would be selling every position in the state of Illinois and that it exactly what happened,” said Cooley.
Posted by PUMA Pundit
