Say Anything Blog

On December 9th, as the Blago scandal was heating up, Obama said the following: “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”  Obama has stated on other occasions that he has had “no contacts” with Blago at all, and has disputed media reporting that has suggested otherwise.

So Obama is firmly on the record as saying he never met with Blagojevich, period.  But now documents obtained by Judicial Watch indicate that Obama did meet with Blago, and that The One has apparently been lying to the public about it.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the office of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich through the Freedom of Information Act related to Blagojevich’s contacts with President-elect Obama and his transition team. The documents include a December 3, 2008, letter from Barack Obama following his December 2, 2008, meeting with Blagojevich as well as a November 17, 2008, letter signed by Presidential Transition Team co-chairs Valerie Jarrett and John Podesta providing Blagojevich with a list of transition team contacts.

The following are excerpts from the letter signed by President-elect Obama on December 3, 2008, less than one week before authorities arrested Blagojevich for attempting to “sell” Obama’s now-vacant Senate seat, among other corruption charges. . . .

“These documents tend to undermine Obama’s claims that he had no contact with Blagojevich and suggest his transition is hiding documents about such contacts,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Why did President-elect Obama not release this letter? What else is he hiding?”

Clearly, Obama has not been entirely forthcoming with the public about his dealings with Blago.  I think it can be argued, as Ed Morrissey does, that Obama’s claims of “no contact” with Blago relate only to contacts concerning the appointment and not “no contact” in general, but even so…why wouldn’t Obama make what contact he did have with Blago entirely public?

Obama said that the report his lawyers released to the media would detail all contact between Obama and his transition team and Blago, yet clearly it didn’t.

Again, Obama is being less than forthcoming, which means that Obama’s relationship with Blago bears further scrutiny.