Here's the front page headline story in
The Chicago Tribune:
Federal investigators recently made covert tape recordings of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the most dramatic step yet in their corruption investigation of him and his administration, the Tribune has learned.
As part of this undercover effort, one of the governor's closest confidants and former aides cooperated with investigators, and that assistance helped lead to recordings of the governor and others, sources said.
The cooperation of John Wyma, 42, one of the state's most influential lobbyists, is the most stunning evidence yet that Blagojevich's once-tight inner circle appears to be collapsing under the pressure of myriad pay-to-play inquiries.
Wyma, Blagojevich's chief of staff when he was in Congress, has long been one of the few advisers trusted by Blagojevich and kept in the loop on matters of policy and politics. As the federal probe intensified, Wyma met privately with the governor and his former chief of staff at the governor's campaign headquarters on the North Side for 90 minutes on Oct. 22.
There's more:
Wyma's name has surfaced repeatedly in many aspects of the federal investigation, including allegations of pay-to-play contracts, fundraising and even the investigation of the real estate business of First Lady Patricia Blagojevich.
In 2005, another Wyma client won $10 million in state tollway contracts after the owner of a company paid Patricia Blagojevich's home-based real estate company more than $30,000 in commissions on the sale of his condominium to Wyma.
You'll want to read what we
said in October.For a greater understanding of
Rod Blagojevich.
