Feds closing in on the missing link?

Chuck Goudie of ABC 7 Chicago said this evening that the hammer might be about to come down on Rod Blagojevich's closest confidant, Chris Kelly (pictured above).

To cut through all the spin, it is necessary to go back to the Joe Cari plea agreement, which, in my opinion, reveals the central theme in U.S. Attorney Patrick's Fitzgerald's pursuit of corruption in the Blagojevich administration.

(Stuart) Levine said that a high ranking Illinois public official ("Public Official A"), acting through two close associates, was selecting consultants for the private equity funds that appeared before the State Pension Funds. Levine said that this was part of a fundraising strategy. Levine said that Public Official A, and his associates, were going to pick law firms, investment banking firms, and consultants that would help Public Official A.

Joe Cari has been indicted and is pleading guilty. Stuart Levine has been indicted and will be pleading guilty. One of the two close associates of Public Official A, Tony Rezko, has been indicted. The other close associate amounts to the missing link: Chris Kelly. Goudie reported that Levine's plea agreement Friday could close the loop.

Sources close to the investigation tell the I-Team that the secret recordings Levine made while conducting crooked deals could be the missing link to several of Governor Blagojevich's top associates and campaign fundraisers. Among them: the governor's political guru Christopher Kelly, a roofer by trade who has been identified by federal sources as "individual B" in the Levine indictment.

If Levine's plea agreement heavily implicates certain individuals I wonder if Patrick Fitzgerald will indict them before the plea agreement is made public?

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