Follow up on Cooley from (say it ain’t so Bo):
Following up on mob-lawyer-turned-undercover-informant Robert Cooley’s explosive allegations that Rod Blagojevich “was a bookmaker on the North Side who regularly paid the Chicago mob to operate” before going into politics, the FBI agent “who supervised Cooley’s undercover work in the late 1980’s confirms that federal officials were informed back then about Blagojevich’s alleged bookmaking and mob payoffs”:
On Thursday, former FBI official Jim Wagner confirms that . . . Cooley indeed informed the bureau about Blagojevich’s alleged bookmaking business. But Mr. Wagner says in the 1980’s, FBI agents had never heard of Blagojevich. Wagner was Cooley’s “handler” for the FBI at the time, supervising his undercover that resulted in two dozen successful prosecutions for public corruption.
For whatever it’s worth, Robert “Bobby the Boxer” Abbinanti, the convicted mob collector to whom Blagojevich allegedly paid street tax, denies Cooley’s allegations:
Mr. Abbinanti denied having been Blagojevich’s mob handler 25 years ago. Abbinanti admits having run outfit gambling rackets with Marco “The Mover” D’amico and that he was convicted with top mob gambling bosses for which he spent six years in the federal penitentiary. “I don’t know what Rod Blagojevich did or has done but I do know one thing. I never met the man. I never spoke to the man. I never had any business — personal or in any way with him and you know what, it’s just an injustice,” said Abbinanti.
Cooley previously represented Abbinanti.
Meanwhile, Chris Kelly, Blagojevich’s former campaign manager, top fundraiser and close friend, has agreed to plead guilty to tax fraud for failing to report $1.3 million in income from sports betting.
Pong:
From
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-bd-deadmeatdec21,0,2882820.column
...Obama selected outgoing Illinois U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Combine) for the post of secretary of transportation, putting LaHood in charge of Obama’s planned trillion-dollar public works bonanza being sold as a jobs bill.
...What Obama forgot to mention is that with LaHood in charge of the roads, they’ll lead to one place:
Bill Cellini.
Republican money man Cellini is not only the Chicago political connection to machine Democrats and Mayor Richard Daley’s City Hall—and a Blagojevich fundraiser—he’s also the boss of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association.
...