Opinion: Obama doesn’t deny but can’t recall attending Rezko party cited in trial

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The question has lingered since it arose last week during the federal corruption trial of Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko:

Why, just weeks after winning the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in 2004, would Barack Obama attend a party for a controversial Iraqi-born billionaire whom Rezko was trying to lure into an investment?

In an interview Friday, Obama didn’t deny the assertion by Stuart Levine, the government’s star witness in the Rezko trial, about the party honoring Nadhmi Auchi. He’s a British citizen who’s appealing a fraud conviction in France. Obama said he didn’t recall the event.

‘I mean this has been, I guess, four years ago,’ the freshman senator said. ‘My understanding, through his lawyer, Mr. Auchi doesn’t recall meeting me.’

Asked if he thought Rezko may have been using him to impress potential investors, Obama replied: ‘I just don’t have a recollection of the event. As I said, I was in the middle of running a U.S. Senate race. So, you know, I was speaking all the time, probably six, seven, eight times a day.’

-- John McCormick

John McCormick writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau.