Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett Linked to Real Estate Scandals
November 15th, 2008 at 12:21am kimberly
Birds of a feather flock together.
Jarrett Managed Housing Project Deemed “Uninhabitable”
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents linking Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to Barack Obama and the co-chairman of the President-Elect’s transition team, to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Rezko and Allison Davis. (Davis is also Obama’s former boss.) Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.
(According to press reports, housing projects operated by Davis and Rezko have been substandard and beset with code violations. The Chicago Sun Times reported that one Rezko-managed housing project was “riddled with problems — including squalid living conditions…lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers.”)
As Chief Executive Officer of the Habitat Company Jarrett also managed a controversial housing project located in Obama’s former state senate district called Grove Parc Plaza. According to the Boston Globe the housing complex was considered “uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage…In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale — a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.” Ms. Jarrett refused to comment to the Globe on the conditions of the complex.
“Like Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett is a product of the corrupt Chicago political machine. And it is no stretch to say that she was a slumlord,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “We have real concerns about Jarrett’s ethics. Washington already has plenty of corruption. We don’t need to import more of it from Chicago.”
Characterized as “the other side of Barack Obama’s brain” by CBS News, Jarrett first met the Obamas seventeen years ago when she offered Michelle Obama a job. While speculation has arisen that Jarrett could take Obama’s place in the U.S. Senate, the New York Times reported that it is more likely she will become a senior White House adviser, thus continuing her long record of being an important influence and mentor to Barack and Michelle Obama.
Entry Filed under: Barack Obama
2 Comments Add your own
1. Sturm | November 15th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Ayres, Raines, Rezko, Wright? Now Add Jarret
Who are these men and what is their association with Barack Obama. I encourage you to do the research yourself after reading the brief summaries below.
Bill Ayres is a former member of the Weather Underground. During a planned bombing of a police monument a bomb went off in his house killing three of his friends. His group bombed the Pentagon. Bill Clinton pardoned him for some unfathomable reason. He has served on several boards with Barack Obama and appointed Obama to at least one of those. Obamas first political fundraiser was held at Ayres home. Since his pardon he has written and spoken of his past and is unrepentant on the bombings, which did kill several innocents, and recently suggested we need a communist revolution in this country.
Franklin Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae was forced out in 2004 by the mortgage finance company’s board of directors Fannie’s financial statements. During his tenure he received a 25,000,000 bonus and also testified before congress that the assets were solid. On July 16, 2008, The Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had “taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.” Also, in an editorial in August 27, 2008 titled “Tough Decision Coming”, the Washington Post editorial staff wrote that “Two members of Mr. Obama’s political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae.”
Tony Rezko is a past fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama, was convicted of scheming to use his clout with the politicians in Illinois to squeeze kickbacks out of companies wanting to do business with the State government. This is the same Mr. Rezko that Mr. Obama purchased some land and a home from.
Reverend Jeremiah Wright was Barack Obama’s, friend, mentor and father figure. He suggested the title for his book, The Audacity of Hope. Reverend Wright is on record as blaming the government for causing AIDS in the black community, blamed America for bringing 9/11 on itself, numerous racist statements against Caucasians as well as being anti semetic and a former Muslim who is a fan of Louis Farrakhan.
Will the Media let us down a 5th time and not call him to task on this Advisor.
2. DemocraticMule | November 16th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
So it’s fine when Bush imports people like Libby, Gonzales, and Addington?
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