"error de juicio"

Vuelve a arreciar el caso Tony Rezko. El Senador Barack Obama se ha visto obligado a declarar al Chicago Tribune que recibió más dinero del que había admitido de Tony Rezko, traficante de influencias de Chicago, acusado judicialmente de fraude y extorsión. Obama había manifestado que Rezko contribuyó con 150,000 dólares a sus campañas electorales, pero ahora matiza y sitúa la cifra en unos 250,000 dólares. También ha tenido que dejar claro que el personaje no le pidió favores políticos a cambio de las contribuciones.

Lo curioso del asunto es que el Senador ha descrito como un "error de juicio" su relación con Rezko, después de pasar meses enfrentando la superioridad de su "buen juicio" a la "experiencia" de Hillary Clinton para ser Presidente. Obama: I trusted Rezko

(...) Trying to put his past with Antoin "Tony" Rezko behind him, presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday said he never thought the nowindicted Chicago businessman would try to take advantage of him because his old friend had never asked for a political favor.

But in a 90-minute interview with Tribune reporters and editors, Obama disclosed that Rezko had raised more for Obama's earlier political campaigns than previously known, gathering as much as $250,000 for the first three offices he sought.

Obama also elaborated on previous statements about his private real estate transactions with Rezko, saying they were not simply mistakes of judgment because Rezko was under grand jury investigation at the time of their 2005 and 2006 dealings. "The mistake, by the way, was not just engaging in a transaction with Tony because he was having legal problems. The mistake was because he was a contributor and somebody who was involved in politics."

(...) When Obama launched his bid for the Illinois Senate in 1995, Rezko was his first substantial contributor. Obama said it was his "best guesstimate" that Rezko raised $10,000 to $15,000 of Obama's roughly $100,000 collected for that race. Obama said he didn't have more certainty because he didn't then have the staff to maintain better campaign finance records.

Rezko helped bankroll all of Obama's subsequent campaigns except his presidential bid. Rezko was on Obama's campaign committee in his failed run against U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush and gathered between $50,000 and $75,000 of the estimated $600,000 raised in that race, Obama said.

Rezko also was on the finance committee for Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate run. "My best assessment is that he raised $160,000 during my U.S. Senate primary," he said, adding that those funds had been given to charity. (...)