Rezko trial: One phone call a Dem fundraiser won't forget

Joseph A. Cari has at least one "What if?" moment in his life, as AP reports:

A leading national Democratic fundraiser told Antoin "Tony" Rezko's fraud trial Wednesday how an admitted drug-snorting fixer hounded him into making a telephone call that could send him to federal prison for years.

Chicago attorney Joseph Cari initially balked at saying he had made the call on behalf of Stuart P. Levine, the government's star witness at the politically explosive trial.

"My actions I'm responsible for, Sir," a sad-sounding Cari said under cross examination by Rezko's attorney, Joseph J. Duffy. "I'm the one who picked up that phone."

Pressed by Duffy, though, Cari acknowledged he had been heavily pressured by both Levine and one of his law partners to warn a Virginia money management firm it had to pay $750,000 or lose its chance to invest $80 million in state pension fund assets.

Duffy further questioned Cari, with the intent of placing the focus on Levine, a Republican insider, and away from Rezko.

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