*** UPDATE *** I told subscribers about this earlier today, but the Tribune now has a story online about how Rod Blagojevich is caught on tape dissing his former bigtime contributor Blair Hull…

…Blagojevich was sitting in his house with the “golden” opportunity to appoint whoever he wanted as a U.S. Senator. Hull, who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2004 against Barack Obama, was calling around to people close to Blagojevich to see if he had a shot to get the seat this time.

He didn’t. But Blagojevich didn’t want him to know that.

So just before 11 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2008 – even before Obama won the presidency – Blagojevich was on the phone with his brother, Robert, asking him to get another $100,000 in contributions from Hull, for whom the governor clearly had little respect.

“Blair Hull actually thinks he can be senator, you believe this guy?” Blagojevich is overheard on a federal wiretap of his home phone telling his brother, who laughs.

“He’s an idiot,” the governor concludes.

Maybe so. But Hull ain’t going to prison.

[ *** End of Update *** ]

* The US Attorney’s office has posted its trial exhibits to date online. Click here to see them. They’ve embedded the audio recordings into the transcripts, so you can hear Rod Blagojevich in all his glory. The Tribune has posted both prosecution and defense exhibits on its site. You may be able to get the audio to work better with the Tribune’s version.

* Meanwhile, Lon Monk’s cross examination by Blagojevich attorney Sam Adam, Jr. didn’t go all that well yesterday…

Adam worked to undo the damage Monk had done over three days on the stand.

Monk leveled severe allegations against his old law school roommate and boss, including that Blagojevich was in on meetings in which associates plotted to make hundreds of thousands of dollars off of state deals.

In one exchange Tuesday, Adam asked Monk if he recalled additional details about his testimony that Monk, Blagojevich and fund-raisers Tony Rezko and Christopher Kelly met secretly to set up ways to split up money from state deals.

Probing for increasing levels of detail, Adam designed his questions so that time and again, Monk could only offer the same reply: “I don’t remember.”

“This is the first time you all sit down and agreed to commit crimes together and you can’t remember?” Adam shouted.

More…

Monk, a longtime friend and top aide to Blagojevich, had testified that Rezko was the instigator and the one who was going to be the keeper of the cash, including $500,000 that allegedly was diverted from the 2003 sale of $10 billion in state bonds designed to shore up Illinois pension systems.

But under questioning from Adam, Monk acknowledged that he knew nothing about where the money he supposedly was going to get was being held.

“You can’t tell us the name on the account?” Adam asked Monk, who agreed. “You can’t even tell us the state the account was held in?”

“What if Rezko dies?” Adam continued. “You don’t know where the money is. What if Rezko is arrested? You can get the money, can you?”

* The defense did a decent job of undermining another prosecution witness…

Rezko associate Bob Kjellander worked as a lobbyist for Bear Sterns during the bond sale and was awarded more than $800,000 for helping secure the contract, according to Vincent Mazzaro, an accountant for the investment firm at the time of the sale.

Kjellander also has been a longtime player in Springfield Republican politics, serving as a committeeman on the Republican National Committee until he stepped down in September 2008.

But the government’s case is a complicated one.

Prosecutors allege that Blagojevich increased the size of the [pension bond] contract in addition to rigging it, in order to increase Kjellander’s profits.

Mazzaro testified Kjellander would receive “success fees” based on how much money Bear Sterns received from the deal. Those fees increased when the state decided to unload all $10 billion on June 5, 2003, rather than the three installments as was originally intended.

But the defense argues the decision was influenced by economics, rather than greed. Prosecution witness and former Illinois Director of Debt Management David Able affirmed that notion during cross examination.

Interest rates were at 5.05 percent in early June, the lowest in more than 30 years. Able said it was good economics for the state to issue bonds when interest was low and would benefit future returns on investment.

* And I’m not quite sure that the $600,000 loan from Kjellander to Joseph Aramanda is easily traceable to Blagojevich, Monk and Chris Kelly…

Prosecutors appear to be trying to link money that was in Aramanda’s account to earlier testimony, which indicated that more than half a million dollars was routed through Kjellander from a state pension bond deal and eventually was to be divvied up between Rezko, Blagojevich and two other associates. […]

Aramanda planned to use the money to rebuild a pizza business which he’d bought from Rezko.

Instead, Aramanda testified that once Rezko helped arrange for the loan, he turned around and demanded the money.

Aramanda said Rezko forced him to use the money to settle a $475,000 debt Aramanda still owed Rezko from Aramanda’s pizza franchise purchase.

Aramanda ended up paying $461,000 to people to whom Rezko owed money, he said. He said he used the rest of the money to try to help his pizza restaurants stay afloat.

Then, in April 2004, Kjellander called Aramanda wanting the one-year loan repaid early.

That’s when, according to Aramanda, Rezko arranged for another loan to him — from Jay Wilton, a California developer who’d recently been awarded a deal to operate oases for the Illinois Tollway. Wilton also was a major Blagojevich campaign contributor.

Aramanda used the Wilton loan to repay Kjellander the $600,000, plus another $24,000, which was presumably interest.

OK, so the original loan was used to pay off Rezko’s debts. Then Aramanda got another loan from Wilton to repay Kjellander. So, my question is, where is the money that the “cabal of four” were supposed to divvy up? There appears to have been a plan to do so, but it doesn’t look like they ever got the cash, unless those pay-back recipients kicked it all back to Rezko. Then again, a conspiracy is alleged. Not necessarily a result.

* Roundup…

* Suit against Blago aides by fired workers going to trial: Sixteen former state workers fired during an alleged partisan purge under impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich cleared a major legal hurdle Tuesday after a federal judge ordered that their lawsuit against three Blagojevich appointees proceed to trial.

* IDOT patronage case headed for federal court

* Rod Blagojevich Trial Day 9: Former DNC Finance Chair Joe Cari on the stand

* Judge Releases Some of Blagojevich’s Secretly Recorded Coversations

* Blagojevich pal-turned witness leaves stand shaken

* Palos heights lawyer defends other Blago

* Pizza franchise owner back on stand in Blago trial