Of Pork and U.S. Attorneys

Lee Daniels’ former chief of staff Mike Tristano agreed to cooperate with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigations. One certainly might be the use of state resources to advance targeted GOP political campaigns.

I’ve given some thought to what might pop up, if an indictment occurs.

Let me state first that Lee Daniels has not been accused by Federal authorities of doing anything illegal. He has spent a lot of the campaign cash he controlled on legal fees, however, folding the House Republican Campaign Committee this year.

In Tristano’s indictment, I noticed something that had not been included in previous indictments of political figures.

Tristano was accused of using pork to get a job for Harry Jankowski.

Jankowski is a real taxpayers’ hero. As a county board member, he led the fight to impose property tax caps on Washington County

But Jankowski was not independently wealthy. He did re-modeling and roofing, among other things, and could not campaign full-time without money to support his family.

Instead of paying him out of his campaign fund, with heavy infusions of money from Daniels-controlled and influenced campaign funds, as was done with another Southern Illinois challenger, Tristano got him a job with a real estate company operated by future felons Roger Stanley and Alan Drazek, plus others.

Jankowski got paid $4,000 a month by a company started by Daniels' favorite direct mail house operator, former State Rep. Stanley (R-Streamwood) and associates. Stanley and fellow company organizer Alan Drazak have pled guilty to felonies in connection with Crystal Laker Donald Udstuen’s acceptance of kickbacks and bribes from Stanley-related companies and Larry Warner. The job gave Jankowski an income and time to campaign.

In addition, during Jankowski’s 2000 campaign for state representative, $395,000 in Illinois FIRST taxpayer dollars were used to advance Jankowski's campaign.

For the rest of the story, go to McHenry County Blog, where you can also read about the Chicago Crime Commission's McHenry County investigation.