ABC News Sat on Blago Bookie Mob Charge for Years

ABC News Sat on Blago Bookie Mob Charge for Years

By Terry Trippany (Bio | Archive)
December 18, 2008 - 12:15 ET

ABC News is reporting that an attorney that did undercover work for the FBI in the 1980's told federal authorities decades ago that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich ran an illegal gambling operation and payed the mob a street tax in order to operate. (see update below)

Former mob lawyer and Chicago cop Robert Cooley was so credible as an FBI informant that his work netted 24 corrupt judges, lawyers and cops in operation Gambat. Yet ABC news elected not to report the story during Blagojevich's 2006 re-election campaign because Cooley wanted to remain anonymous and the Governor denied the allegation.

"When I was working with government wearing wire, I reported, I observed Rod, the present governor, who was running a gambling operation out in the western suburbs. He was paying street tax to the mob out there," said Robert Cooley, federal informant.

On a web-based interview show last week, Cooley said he reported to federal authorities nearly two decades ago that Rod Blagojevich had been operating an illegal sports gambling business.

Robert Cooley is a former Chicago police officer-turned mob lawyer-turned federal informant. During Operation Gambat in the late 1980's and early 1990's, Cooley's undercover work and testimony put away 24 crooked politicians, judges, lawyers and cops. Several years ago, when Mr. Blagojevich was running for re-election, Cooley provided the same information to the ABC7 I-Team. Because Cooley did not want to be identified at the time and the governor denied it, ABC7 did not report the story.

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I'd like to see a show of hands of people that believe the media would have sat on this story if the person being fingered was a Republican.

This is the same ABC affiliate whose attorney's worked overtime in 2004 to force the California courts to unseal the divorce records of Illinois Republican Jack Ryan when he was running against Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate seat. The efforts of the press successfully embarrassed the Republican and damaged his campaign to the point where he dropped out of the race. Yet charges of corruption tying a sitting Governor to the Illinois mob were brushed aside by Chicago's local ABC affiliate because the Governor denied it and the whistle blower wouldn't reveal his identity.

Another low note in the annals of investigative reporting.

Update: There is a fine line between working for the mob and paying the mob a street tax to operate an illegal gambling operation. I updated the story to note that difference although I am not sure which is worse.

Terry Trippany is the publisher of Webloggin and holds the post as The Watcher at Watcher of Weasels.

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Regardless of your political

December 18, 2008 - 12:48 ET by IndigoChill

Regardless of your political affiliation, it is bad reporting practice to run a story with anonymous sources. Cooley was a source, but if he wasn't going to be identified, it might have been in the journalistic best interest of ABC not to run the story.

There's more to life than partisanship. Of course, it always could be partisanship.

There's more to life than

December 18, 2008 - 12:58 ET by Dan The Man 2

There's more to life than partisanship. Of course, it always could be partisanship

So Indigo, have you been a good little boy this year and what is Santa going to bring you? Of course its partisan, it illustrates the shoddy reporting and corruption of Chicago, teh machine that propelled Obama to the win. Its about the things we the public are not allowed to know about the One.

I sure hope your comment was in jest and sarcastic because it really torqued me off.

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.

Profile I'm a college

December 18, 2008 - 13:00 ET by stratman

Profile

I'm a college student from the Sacramento area. My interests include emerging media, social media, and new media.

What do you consider to be an example of a "new" media?

I would think that NewsBusters would be an example of an emerging and a social media.

"Welcome to NewsBusters, a project of the Media Research Center (MRC), the leader in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias."

Nothing prevents the press

December 18, 2008 - 13:00 ET by Terry Trippany

Nothing prevents the press from running with anonymous sources on many issues. How about a freedom of information act request looking to see if the feds actually had record of Colley's claim. Perhaps they did but it seems odd. I'm not sure if such infor would be protected under the FOI's 9 exemptions.