I’m here in Chicago at the Dirksen federal courthouse, where Barack Obama’s friend and campaign contributor Antoin “Tony” Rezko is being tried on federal corruption charges. The trial, which has been underway since the first week of March, resumed today after a weeklong break.
The government’s key witness is a Chicago-area businessman named Stuart Levine. Levine has been under indictment since 2005 on multiple counts of fraud and extortion, and he is testifying against Rezko in the hope of avoiding spending the rest of his life in prison.
Everyone expects Rezko’s defense team to draw the jury’s attention to Levine’s plea deal, but Rezko’s lawyers are also expected to have field day with Levine’s admitted past drug use. Today, the prosecution attempted to contain some of the damage by asking Levine a series of questions about drugs.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher Niewoehner’s line of questioning appeared intended to establish that Levine did not use drugs when he conducted business. This would indicate to the jury that Levine was not under the influence of drugs during the many conversations he had with Rezko that form the basis of the prosecution’s case. Niewoehner also asked Levine whether Levine stopped using drugs after the FBI informed him that he was under investigation, apparently to establish that he wasn’t under the influence of drugs when he agreed to testify against Rezko.
Unfortunately for the prosecution, Levine said that he had used drugs while conducting business “a few times,” whenever he had drugs leftover from partying. He also admitted that it was possible that he had used drugs “one or two times” since getting busted by the feds.
It’s not just when Levine used that will pose a problem for the prosecution; it’s also what he used. The government’s star witness told the court he used LSD, marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine frequently throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, but that in the late ‘80s his preferences changed. At that point, he started regularly ingesting a combination of crystal methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant, and ketamine, an animal tranquilizer.
There’s still plenty of evidence against Rezko, including incriminating comments he made during recorded phone conversations. But you can almost see his lawyers salivating at the chance to ask Levine why anyone should trust the memory of a guy who spent the last twenty years snorting bathtub speed and doggie downers.