Posted on 09/29/2005 7:06:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CHICAGO - The political strategist who helped engineer former Gov. George Ryan's rise to power took the witness stand Thursday and in testimony laced with wisecracks began telling a jury how Ryan doled out state contracts, leases and favors to the well-connected.
Scott Fawell waved to spectators and grinned broadly as he took his seat. He nodded to Ryan, saluted a newspaper reporter and made no effort to disguise his disdain for the prosecutors who put him in federal prison for graft.
Asked by prosecutor Patrick M. Collins why he agreed to testify against his former boss, the 48-year-old Fawell cited his love for his fiancee and added: "And you guys got my head in a vise."
Ryan, 71, is charged with racketeering conspiracy, fraud and other offenses. Prosecutors say he doled out contracts and business to political insiders in exchange for cash, free vacations and other favors while he was Illinois secretary of state in the 1990s. He is on trial along with his lobbyist friend Larry Warner.
Fawell served as Ryan's chief of staff in the secretary of state's office and masterminded Ryan's campaign for governor in 1998.
Fawell, who is serving a 6 1/2-year sentence in federal prison for racketeering and fraud, said he considers Ryan and Warner his friends and is testifying against them only because he is facing even more time behind bars for bid-rigging and hopes to get lenient treatment for himself and his fiancee — who also has pleaded guilty.
The witness said he compiled a master list while working in the secretary of state's office that showed how Ryan doled out jobs, special license plates, contracts and other favors.
He said he made the list because he believed it would become politically useful.
"I view everything through the eyes of politics," Fawell said.
Fawell peppered his testimony with wisecracks, angry asides and blunt opinions. At point, he testified that reporters are "not the brightest bulbs."
Fawell said he and Ryan spent many vacations at the Jamaica home of currency exchange mogul Harry Klein. He said he wrote $1,000 checks to pay for most trips and Klein secretly reimbursed him each time with 10 $100 bills.
Fawell said he did not know whether Ryan had the same deal with Klein. But he said Ryan raised the fees currency exchanges are allowed to charge motorists for license stickers and steered a state lease to Klein.
"He wanted Harry to be happy," Fawell said.
Ryan, who was governor from 1999 to 2003, won widespread attention by clearing out Illinois' death row and commuting the sentences of 167 inmates just before he left office.
He was brought down by a federal probe that initially focused on the paying of bribes for driver's licenses and expanded into a full-scale investigation of corruption in the Ryan era. Seventy-nine people have been charged, 73 convicted.
In this courtroom artists drawing, Scott Fawell, right, the onetime right-hand man to former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, left, testifits against his old boss in Federal Court Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005, in Chicago. As he began testifying, Fawell said the reason he is cooperating with prosecutors in Ryan's racketeering trial is to help his fiancee, who is accused in a bid-rigging case. (AP Photo/Verna Sadock)
This guy is a couple quarters short of a full roll , if ya get my drift.
Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, left, departs the Dirksen Federal Building with attorney Dan Webb after the first day of opening arguments in his racketeering trial Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005. The biggest corruption trial in Chicago in decades opened Wednesday with a federal prosecutor launching a blistering attack on Ryan, saying he betrayed the public's trust by taking cash and gifts to help insiders land lucrative state contracts. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Was this a Dem or a Rep?
Rino
The only Democrat I ever voted for was against Ryan. Forget his name now, but he was more conservative than Ryan and without the baggage.
Blessing, Bobo.
Glen Poshard (I think that's how it's spelled)
I voted for Poshard also...he was more conservative than Ryan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.