Rezko-Obama 4-24-07 "I DIDNT KNOW"

Obama: I didn't know about Rezko problems
April 24, 2007
BY TIM NOVAK Staff Reporter/tnovak@suntimes.com
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said Monday he accepted campaign contributions from Antoin "Tony'' Rezko without knowing that Rezko was a slumlord with problem buildings in the state Senate district Obama represented at the time.
"Should I have known these buildings were in a state of disrepair? My answer would be that it wasn't brought to my attention,'' Obama, who's seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said at a South Side campaign stop.
His comments came in response to a Chicago Sun-Times report that he had done previously undisclosed legal work between 1995 and 1998 on a series of troubled low-income-housing deals involving Rezmar Corp., owned by the indicted businessman.
Obama worked for a small Chicago law firm -- Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland -- between 1993 and 2004. The firm worked on deals that got $43 million in government funds for 15 apartment buildings Rezmar rehabilitated with not-for-profit community groups. Four of the buildings ended up being foreclosed on.
In all, Rezmar rehabbed 30 buildings. A third of those were in the Illinois Senate district Obama represented between 1997 and 2004. Many of the buildings fell into disrepair and financial straits while Obama was state senator, prompting the city to repeatedly sue over problems including no heat.
Obama, a friend of Rezko for 17 years, said he often got complaints as a state senator about housing problems. But, he said, "As far as I can tell, we were never contacted by Rezko tenants."
Obama got more than $50,000 in campaign contributions from Rezko, Rezko's family, his businesses and business associates between 1995 and 2004, records show.
"Mr. Rezko gave me campaign contributions,'' Obama said. "While I was a state senator, he had buildings in my district that apparently were not managed properly. I had no knowledge of that at the time.''
Obama said he did just five hours of legal work on Rezmar projects