Free Republic

CHICAGO - The onetime top aide to ex-Gov. George Ryan testified Monday that a lobbyist helped computer companies land millions of dollars in state contracts while raising political funds for Ryan. The lobbyist, Larry Warner, was careful to keep his name off campaign finance reports, Scott Fawell said in his second day on the witness stand at Ryan's racketeering trial. Ryan, 71, and Warner, 67, are charged in the 22-count indictment with racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud and other offenses. Both men say that nothing they did was illegal. Fawell said Warner raised $100,000 at a dinner for Ryan while helping...

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...