Burris

I would be remiss if I didn't
remind you and the rest of the committee that our role
here is to investigate Rod Blagojevich and not Roland
Burris.

-REPRESENTATIVE FRITCHE

Relevant testimony from Burris:

REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: Now, prior to the
4 Governor's arrest, did you have any conversations,
5 prior to his arrest did you have any conversations
6 with the Governor about your desire to be appointed to
7 the seat?
8 MR. BURRIS: No.
9 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: Did you talk to any
10 members of the Governor's staff or anyone closely
11 related to the Governor, including family members or
12 any lobbyists connected with him, including let me
13 throw out some names, John Harris, Rob Blagojevich,
14 Doug Scofield, Bob Greenleaf, Lon Monk, John Wyma, did
15 you talk to anybody who was associated with the
16 Governor about your desire to seek the appointment
17 prior to the Governor's arrest?
18 MR. WRIGHT: Give us a moment.
19 MR. BURRIS: I talked to some friends about
20 my desire to be appointed, yes.
21 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: I guess the point is
22 I was trying to ask, did you speak to anybody who was
23 on the Governor's staff prior to the Governor's arrest
24 or anybody, any of those individuals or anybody who is

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1 closely related to the Governor?
2 MR. BURRIS: I recall having a meeting with
3 Lon Monk about my partner and I trying to get
4 continued business, and I did bring it up, it must
5 have been in September or maybe it was in July of '08
6 that, you know, you're close to the Governor, let him
7 know that I am certainly interested in the seat.
8 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: Okay. Did you speak
9 to any individuals who -- any individuals who were
10 also seeking the appointment of the United States
11 Senate seat, otherwise people we've referred to as
12 Senate candidates one through five?
13 MR. BURRIS: No, I did not.
14 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: Okay. At any time
15 were you directly or indirectly aware of a quid pro
16 quo with the Governor for the appointment of this
17 vacant Senate seat?
18 MR. BURRIS: No, sir.
19 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: Okay. If you were
20 aware of a quit pro quo, what would you have done?
21 MR. WRIGHT: Madam Chairman, I think that
22 calls for a -- that's a hypothetical question that I
23 don't think that what he would have done, it could
24 have depended. I don't think that's an appropriate

943


1 question.
2 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: I disagree. I think
3 that it is highly relevant. You're speaking to the
4 committee, but you're also speaking to the state of
5 Illinois. I think it's important to know what his
6 response would have been if he was aware of a quid pro
7 quo with the Governor and also for the appointment.
8 CHAIRWOMAN CURRIE: Representative Fritchey.
9 REPRESENTATIVE FRITCHEY: Madam Chairman, if
10 I may, Mr. Burris had already stated that he was not
11 aware of any quid pro quo, which answers that question
12 and puts it to rest. What his response would have
13 been had there been something, which he stated did not
14 occur, is clearly irrelevant to this, and according to
15 Mr. Burris, to speculate on something that would have
16 happened if another situation had happened which he
17 clearly says has not.
18 Representative Durkin, I'm not trying to stifle
19 you whatsoever, and I understand the generalities
20 where you're trying to go. But again, I think that
21 we're outside the realm here of what's germane to this
22 hearing.
23 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: I think it's germane,
24 and I think in the conduct of this committee over the

944


1 past month that we've been given significant leeway to
2 try to find responses to individuals who are sworn in
3 before this committee, and I think that it's a
4 reasonable request to ask what would have been Mr.
5 Burris's response if he was aware of a quid pro quo
6 for the United States Senate seat.
7 REPRESENTATIVE FRITCHEY: But the leeway has
8 been with response to representatives on behalf of the
9 Governor and the Governor's administration, not with
10 respect to third parties who have clearly stated that
11 they've had no involvement with those actions.
12 MR. WRIGHT: Representative, Senator Burris
13 wants to be clear and open, so to the extent you're
14 asking him to speculate, he'll try to respond to that.
15 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: Thank you.
16 MR. BURRIS: Representative Durkin, knowing
17 my ethics, I would not participate in anybody's quid
18 pro quo. I've been in government for 20 years and
19 never participated in anybody's quid pro quo.
20 REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: I guess the point is
21 would you have gone to the federal authorities if you
22 were aware of that?
23 MR. BURRIS: I have no response to that...

Can you say before this committee, sir,
21 emphatically that none of those things were promised
22 from you to the governor or there was no exchange in
23 regards to anything legal, personal or political?
24 MR. BURRIS: Representative Flowers, I can

976

1 before this committee state that there was nothing
2 legal or --
3 REPRESENTATIVE FLOWERS: The three points
4 were legal.
5 MR. BURRIS: Legal.
6 REPRESENTATIVE FLOWERS: Personal.
7 MR. BURRIS: Personal.
8 REPRESENTATIVE FLOWERS: Political.
9 MR. BURRIS: Or political, exchanged for my
10 appointment to this seat.
11 REPRESENTATIVE FLOWERS: There was no
12 conversation, none to that effect, and I know you
13 answered this on numerous of occasions, no quid pro
14 quo, none of that?
15 MR. BURRIS: Absolutely, positively not...

REPRESENTATIVE TRACY: So you don't recall
17 that there was anybody else besides Lon Monk that you
18 expressed that interest to at that point?
19 MR. BURRIS: No, I can't recall. Because
20 people were coming to me saying Roland, you should
21 pursue that appointment, you're qualified, and this
22 was --
23 REPRESENTATIVE TRACY: Is there anybody that
24 comes to mind in that light that you can --

1000


1 MR. BURRIS: Yes, Rich Barber from Summerset,
2 New Jersey, the gentleman I introduced at my press
3 conference in Washington the other day, he contacted
4 me from Summerset, New Jersey, and said "Roland,
5 there's no one better qualified for you to be United
6 States Senator from the great state of Illinois. And
7 therefore, I'm going to start contacting --" you know,
8 I was just wait a minute, you know, Obama hasn't --
9 well, that happened after, maybe after November 4th.
10 See you're asking me a question that has so many
11 moving parts to it that I might not be -- and my
12 counsel reminded me that the class of 1955 from
13 Centralia, Illinois, also were contacting me. And of
14 course a lot of them, that got started after
15 President-elect Obama had been -- had won the
16 election.
17 And so I'm -- and I can start giving you names if
18 you need names of people who you can follow up after
19 that, after November 4th I can certainly give you a
20 few names, but I can't give you the thousands of
21 people who were involved in this.

Now if you read the Feb 5 affidavit and compare it to his testimony you'll see that he was correct when he said:

I mentioned a conversation with Lon Monk but was then asked another question and did not mention anyone else.

Now the NY Times is misrepresenting Burris' testimony writing:

In a sworn affidavit he provided to a committee of the Illinois House in Springfield on Jan. 5, Mr. Burris said “there was not any contact” between himself or his representatives and those of Mr. Blagojevich before he was chosen. At the time, Mr. Burris was pressing to be seated in Washington by Senate leaders, who waited for testimony Mr. Burris provided to an Illinois House committee.

The transcript above clearly shows that Burris never said he had " no contact." in fact the testimony is two part: One asking contact with anyone in Blagojovich's camp about the appointment and a second question regarding whether he had contact with any of "the five." It was to the latter question to which he responded "No contact."

The Times continues:

He was asked by the committee whether he had talked with “any members of the governor’s staff or anyone closely related to the governor, including family members or any lobbyists connected with him,” including, by name, the governor’s brother, the governor’s chief of staff, former chief of staff and top advisers.

Mr. Burris answered, “I talked to some friends about my desire to be appointed, yes,” and then told of a conversation he had had months earlier with a former Blagojevich chief of staff about his interest in the Senate seat.

The operative part of the answer being "Yes." If Durbin, the committee questioner had been so interested in the specifics he could have done so, but did not return to that line of questioning (as a good lawyer would have) and instead moved on to questions about some $1.2 million donation.

So by reading the testimony and the transcript, there's no discrepancy in the testimony and the affidavit.

Now what is potentially a problem is the fund raiser. The problem here though is the fundraising request. The problem is that asking for a fundraiser is not illegal. Asking for a fundraiser in exchange for a Senate seat is illegal. My question is, if the prosecutor had Burris on tape agreeing to a QPQ then why didn't the prosecutor bring it up when Burris was announced? Wasn't his reason for pre-empting his own case to prevent such a thing from happening? It doesn't smell right to me.

In the end the tapes will reveal all, Reed, Rahm, Burris, Jackson and Blagojevich.