Source:
Associated PressObama Gives Up Questionable DonationBy NEDRA PICKLER
The Associated Press
Friday, June 1, 2007; 3:40 PM
WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama
is donating to charity a $5,000 contribution to his 2004 Senate
campaign from an indicted former Illinois official, a spokesman
said Friday.
Ali Ata, the former executive director of the Illinois Finance
Authority, was charged Thursday with trying to help entrepreneur
Antoin Rezko borrow $10 million in a fraud scheme.
-snip-Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the senator was on a flight
Friday afternoon so it was unclear whether he and Ata knew each
other personally besides sharing a close mutual friend in Rezko.
Ata, a frequent political contributor, donated $5,000 to Obama's
Senate campaign on June 30, 2003. After being asked about the
donation by The Associated Press, Burton said $5,000 from the
Senate campaign account would be donated to an unspecified
charity.
-snip-Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060101432.html