From the Chicago Sun-Times:
In a court filing, Rezko's lawyers say that prosecutors accused him in a closed-door meeting of paying the bribe to Aiham Alsammarae, Iraq's former minister of electricity.
Rezko's defense team called the accusation "baseless." They accused the prosecution of relying too heavily on the word of Daniel Mahru, a former Rezko business partner who is expected to testify against Rezko.
"Had the government investigated Mahru's claim before regurgitating it, the government would have learned that just about every aspect of Mahru's story is demonstrably false," Rezko's lawyers wrote.
In 2005, a start-up company owned in part by Rezko -- Companion Security -- won a $50 million contract from Iraq's Ministry of Electricity to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States. The deal was left in limbo a month later because of a change in Iraq's leadership.
Alsammarae is a former classmate of Rezko's at the Illinois Institute of Technology, he returned to his native Iraq after Saddam Hussein was driven from power. He escaped from an Iraq jail and is now living in Oak Brook, Illinois.
He maintains his innocence, but last year an Iraqi judge sentenced Alsammarae in absentia to 21 years in prison for various corruption offenses.
The Rezko trial may begin tomorrow. Every day Barack Obama has to worry about stories like this one coming out.
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