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Apr 15, 2008 8:12 pm US/Central

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Witness: Blagojevich Dreamed Of White House Run

CHICAGO (AP) ― Gov. Rod Blagojevich dreamed aloud about running for president and said big-money state contracts would be available to those willing to help, a national Democratic fundraiser testified Tuesday.

Joseph Cari, a former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, told Antoin "Tony" Rezko's fraud trial Blagojevich made the remarks aboard a plane en route to an October 2003 fundraiser in New York.

Blagojevich spoke of how excited he was following his election as governor in 2002 and his dreams for the future, Cari said.

"Also that he had aspirations beyond the governorship," Cari said.

"What did you understand by that?" prosecutor Reid J. Schar asked.

"Running for the presidency," Cari said.

Blagojevich's office denied any such conversation ever took place. "The governor barely knows Mr. Cari," spokesman Abby Ottenhoff said.

Rezko, 52, a former key fundraiser for Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama, is charged with scheming with attorney Stuart Levine to split a $1.5 million bribe from a contractor and shake down money management firms seeking state pension business.

Neither Blagojevich nor Obama is charged with any wrongdoing and Blagojevich has denied he was aware of any illegal activities in his administration.

Rezko denies that he took part in any such scheme. But Levine has pleaded guilty and taken the stand as the government's star witness in hopes of getting a lenient 5 1/2-year sentence. He finished testifying Tuesday after weeks on the stand.

Cari said he set up the New York fundraising trip and Levine invited him to ride along on a plane that he had chartered for Blagojevich.

He said he ended up sitting with Blagojevich and the governor confided his thoughts about the future, including aspirations beyond being governor.

Cari quoted Blagojevich as saying Rezko and another fundraiser, Christopher Kelly, were his most trusted advisers and "they were going to be the key people in his public service wherever it went." Blagojevich told him there would be "investment banking work, consulting work to give to the people who helped them," Cari said.

The governor asked if Cari would help by raising funds nationally but he declined because of the emotional strain of his wife's recent death, Cari said.

Cari said he was surprised by what Blagojevich had said because he supported his opponent in the governor's race, Republican Jim Ryan.

Schar asked if he also was surprised because such frankness usually only comes from "someone who was a close confidant."

"Absolutely," Cari said.

Cari said they went to a fundraiser at the Harvard Club in New York.

"Mr. Levine shared that there was a plan in place," Cari said. He said that "consultants and lawyers and investment bankers would be picked by people in the administration or around the administration and these people would be solicited for campaign contributions," Cari testified.

After the Harvard Club, Blagojevich and others in his entourage went to a private party at 21 thrown by investment banker Nicholas Hurtgen, Cari said.

Back in Chicago, Cari said he was summoned to meetings with both Rezko and Kelly where they urged him to raise money for Blagojevich.

He said Kelly "pushed me pretty hard -- that this would be good for my law firm and my private equity firm, that I could have whatever I wanted but they needed help raising funds nationally."

Cari testified he headed the board of a private equity firm, HealthPoint Partners, that had an allocation of $35 million to invest from the $40 billion fund that pays the pensions of retired school teachers. Levine sat on the board of the pension fund.

Cari testified that Hurtgen, a one-time aide to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, told him he could help get allocations for HealthPoint from Wisconsin pension funds if Cari paid finder's fees. Hurtgen told him Levine would pick the finders to receive the fees, Cari said.

Kelly is currently under indictment on tax charges and Hurtgen was also indicted in connection with the alleged shakedown of a suburban hospital.

Cari has pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and expects a 2 1/2-year sentence in return for his testimony in the Rezko case.

Cari said Levine pressured him to telephone a Virginia-based private equity firm, JER Partners, which sought an $80 million allocation from the teachers pension fund. Urged on by Levine, he warned the head of the firm, Debbie Harmon, that her proposal would be killed unless JER signed an agreement to pay a $750,000 consulting fee.

On a conference call a JER lawyer told him: "Joe, we never met this consultant" and that the firm had received "a consulting contract faxed from somewhere in the Caribbean," Cari said.

At that, Cari testified, "I said we're all lawyers on this call -- you do what you have to do to represent your client and I got off the phone."