Joseph A. Cari, Jr. (born 8 October 1952) is an American lawyer, businessman, private equity investor, and public policy expert from Chicago Illinois. Cari is a Senior Managing Director at Integration Capital & Trade, Inc., is on the Advisory Board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. and the Terrorism and Counterterrorism Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch in New York New York.
Cari was indicted by the U.S. Attorney for extortion and reached a plea agreement with the U.S. in 2006 for a case involving state officials. He awaits sentencing.
Previously, Cari held the position of Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilson Center (appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton in 1995). In 2001, Joe Cari Jr. was awarded a fellowship at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Legislative Assistant, US Congressman Martin Russo (D-Illinois), 1974 - 1975
Political Advisor, Biden for President, 1987
Chairman, Democratic National Finance Committee, Gore for President, 2000
Chairman, US Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, Finance Chair 1995
When the Delaware senator began contemplating his own 2008 presidential run, he initially was helped by Chicago lawyer Joseph Cari Jr., who also served as Biden’s Midwest field director in his failed 1988 bid for president.
Biden took $2,000 in campaign contributions from Cari in the early and mid-1990s, federal campaign-finance records show.
Two other donors whose names surfaced in the Rezko case — Chicago lawyers Myron “Mike” Cherry and Anthony Licata — donated to Biden’s U.S. Senate campaign, as well. Cherry has given Biden $5,900, while Licata gave $1,000. Neither Cherry nor Licata has been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.
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“A veteran Democratic fundraiser (Cari) testified Tuesday that Gov. Rod Blagojevich once offered to give him his pick of contracts and state business in exchange for help building a nationwide political money machine as a prelude to a presidential run.
“The governor said ‘that there were contracts, legal work, investment banking work and consulting work to be awarded to people who helped,’ Joseph Cari recalled as he took the stand in the federal corruption trial of Blagojevich insider Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
“The allegations by Cari, once a finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, were the most explicit accusations of pay-to-play politics leveled against Blagojevich at a trial where he is not even the defendant.”
So when’s Blagojevich going to be charged?