Anthony Pellicano Convicted- Could He Be Hillary's Rezko?

L-Tony Pellicano R-Tony Rezko



As the trial of Barack Obama's friend, Tony Rezko, nears its end in Chicago, speculation is rife as to what kind of cooperation he might offer the government if he is convicted. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, this week, the federal trial of private investigator, Anthony Pellicano ended with his conviction in federal court on 76 (out of 77) counts, including wiretapping, racketeering, wire fraud, etc. Sentencing is set for September 24. Pellicano faces 20 years on each of the racketeering counts and 5 years on most other counts.

Pellicano is a tough-talking thug, who has bragged of using physical force on behalf of his clients-including the use of knives and baseball bats. He has been linked to several celebrity clients including comedian Chris Rock, who was dragged in to testify at the trial.

Pellicano's name has also been linked to another prominent celebrity-Hillary Rodham Clinton-dating back to the days when she was First Lady. According to numerous reports at the time, Pellicano was one of the private investigators brought in to "investigate"-or harass women who were claiming sexual affairs-or approaches by President Clinton. The investigators were dubbed, "the Clinton Shadow Team".(Clinton attorney, David Kendall, has denied to the NY Daily News that Pellicano was ever used by anyone connected to the Clinton White House.)

Others say different. According to Joseph Farrah in World Net Daily, July 2005, Pellicano was one of the investigators working for Terry Lenzner's Investigative Group International in Washington DC when they were hired by the Clintons to check into the backgrounds of their critics-and female associates of Bill Clinton.

According to Carl Limbach of Newsmax (in 2003), Pellicano was hired by the Clintons in 1992 to discredit the claims of Jennifer Flowers about her relationship with Bill Clinton. Pellicano is reportedly the one who analyzed Flowers' tape-recorded conversations with Bill and pronounced them doctored. Pellicano's involvement in discrediting the Flowers tapes was also described in Ron Kessler's book, "Inside the White House".

According to Limbach (Newsmax 2-2-99), Pellicano also reportedly is the one who dug up Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend, a teacher named Andy Bleier, who claimed that Lewinsky told him of her plans to go to Washington and "get her presidential knee pads on".

According to the Washington Post, in an article dated 2-22-98, Sidney Blumenthal was asked (in the grand jury)about contact he had had with three private investigators, Lenzner, Jack Palladino and Pellicano. The Post also reported that Pellicano had denied doing background investigations on Special Prosecutor, Ken Starr and his staff. He refused to say if he had done work on the Lewinsky matter.

In fairness, it must be pointed out that many of these above sources are conservative. They charge that the mainstream news media has not followed the so-called Clinton-Pellicano connection-ever since his initial arrest in 2002. It should also be noted that if Pellicano decides to "roll over" on the Clintons, prosecutors should only be concerned about illegal allegations-not information that would simply embarrass Hillary Clinton.

I should note that the news article I read this week announcing Pellicano's conviction (Orange County Register) said nothing about Pellicano's alleged connection to the Clintons.

Reported or not, Senator Clinton must be watching the events in LA with some trepidation, just as Obama is surely watching the events in Chicago-a tale of two cities- or a tale of two Tonys, if you will.