*** UPDATE 4 *** From the trial’s final argument…
Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher Niewoehner ended the trial’s final argument with a flurry, asking the jury for a conviction.
This wasn’t some series of random circumstances that led to Rezko being victimized, said Niewoehner, his voice rising with anger as he spoke to the jury largely without notes.
“This is a crime, ladies and gentlemen,” Niewoehner said. “This is a crime that involves the highest levels of power in Illinois.”
[…]
“He’s a victim of nothing but his own greed,” Niewoehner said of Rezko. “And that is a victim you need not concern yourselves with.”
* The Sun-Times’ blog adds…
“Mo matter how much Mr. Duffy wants to make this trial about the secret life of Stuart Levine, that’s not what this trial is about,” he said. “There’s somebody else who’s being exposed – it’s the defendant [Rezko’s] secret life.”
Rezko’s secret life had nothing to do with drugs or the all-night parties Levine had at the Purple Hotel in Lincolnwood. For Rezko, it was all about covering his tracks, telling people “don’t talk” to authorities and “there’s going to be a new U.S. Attorney to come in. The cooperators will be dealt with.”
[…]
Besides Rezko manipulating votes on a state teacher-pension board to enrich himself and his associates with illegal finder’s fees, “this is a crime that involves deciding where hospitals are going to be built . . . based on who’s willing to pay a bribe,” he said.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Duffy has apparently wrapped up his closing argument…
Rezko was also a victim of Levine’s schemes, Duffy said. When Rezko dealt with him, he did not understand what a con man he was, he told the panel.
“Did he, like anyone else, have a clue about what he really was? Of course not,” Duffy said.
Government agents had 41 interviews with Levine, and they, too, were fooled by him, Duffy said.
“Unlike Mr. Rezko, they are professional law enforcement people,” argued Duffy, telling the jurors that agents and prosecutors always have their antennae up.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Tribune…
[Duffy] spent most of his time dealing with Count 16, a charge that Rezko tried to extort $1.5 million in campaign fundraising help for Gov. Rod Blagojevich out of Tom Rosenberg, a principal in real-estate management firm Capri Capital that was seeking $220 million in investments from the same pension board. Prosecutors say Rezko, Levine and others conspired to hold up the investment as they tried to force Rosenberg to comply.
“Nobody ever asked Rosenberg for any money,” Duffy said. “Nobody, nobody, nobody. I don’t know how you have an attempted extortion where nobody asks the intended victim for anything.”
Duffy said he expected to talk for another hour this afternoon, and then Assistant U.S. Atty. Chris Niewoehner will give a rebuttal argument for the government — the final argument from lawyers on either side in the case. Niewoehner said he expected to take less than two hours.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the Tribune’s excellent Rezko trial blog (both Chicago papers seem to be doing very good jobs, by the way)…
It is, of course, impossible to read the minds of jurors as they watch the closing arguments, but at least one seems to be doing his best to broadcast his displeasure — or at least his boredom — with Duffy.
The man sitting at the end of the jury box closest to the news media can be seen from the gallery smirking, talking to himself, looking at the clock, leaning forward and staring at the chair in front of him. He then leaned back and thumped his head against a back wall, rubbed his eyes, stretched his arms, scratched his back and shook his head.
All of this while every other juror appears to be paying attention and a few are taking notes.
Defense attorney Duffy also went after Joe Cari’s testimony this morning, suggesting that Cari confused his meeting dates.
* 11:00 am - Rezko defense attorney Joe Duffy has resumed his closing arguments this morning…
Duffy invented a phrase to refer to the government’s theory of the case against Rezko. Duffy called it “the Levine prism.” All the evidence against Rezko, he said, is presented through the eyes and words of Levine. “It’s almost like they were trying to prove the Levine theory of the case and lost track of the big picture,” Duffy said.
And Duffy pulled out another metaphor, comparing the government’s case with the Great Pyramid of Egypt, an engineering marvel that sits perfectly balanced on its cornerstones. The message Duffy was trying to convey was that Levine was the cornerstone of the government’s case and therefore it was unsupportable.
* Going after Stu Levine appears to be a winner with the jury. This passage is from today’s Sun-Times…
At times, jurors smiled, suppressed chuckles or outright laughed. In poking fun at Levine’s memory, Duffy cited an old anti-drug commercial featuring eggs in a frying pan: “This is your brain. This is your brains on drugs. Bingo! They got it right.”
* And…
Several jurors tried to suppress laughter, including one who put her hands over her mouth.
* More Duffy one-liners from today’s closing arguments…
On why Levine is cooperating in the Rezko case: “He needed Rezko for one reason only. To avoid life in prison.”
On Levine’s claims that Levine was being truthful with the jury: “You’re not gonna change the stripes on a zebra.”
On what the government should have done with Levine: “They should have terminated his cooperation agreement and taken the full force of the law against him. The sad reality of it is they made a commitment to him and they needed him.”
On why the government didn’t have Levine attempt to record Rezko after Levine began cooperating: “Why wasn’t there an effort to tape Mr. Rezko? What do you think would have ended up on that tape? Nothing that would have been consistent with the story he told in this trial.”
* And…
Duffy showed a chart indicating Levine withdrew $1.3 million in cash from 2000 to early 2004. Duffy attributed the cash to a far more excessive drug use than what Levine admitted. He then showed a chart showing Levine dialed his drug sources 806 times in a 25-month period.
“That’s more than one call a day,” Duffy said.