Just weeks after winning the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in 2004, Barack Obama was the guest of developer Antoin "Tony" Rezko at a party for a controversial British billionaire whom Rezko was trying to lure into an investment, a witness testified Monday at Rezko's corruption trial.
Stuart Levine, the government's star witness, said Obama and his wife, Michelle, were among the guests at Rezko's home on April 3, 2004, for the party honoring Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born tycoon currently appealing a fraud conviction in France.
As he campaigns for president, Obama has acknowledged social and political ties to Rezko, as well as a real estate deal between the two that involved Obama's South Side home. But Obama has not disclosed his presence at the Auchi party, which Rezko threw as part of a campaign to persuade Auchi to pour money into a financially troubled 62-acre development in the South Loop.
Though not flatly disputing Levine's assertion, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt repeated what the senator has said: "Sen. Obama does not recall meeting Nadhmi Auchi at any time or on any occasion, and this includes any event that may have been held for Mr. Auchi," LaBolt said.