A leader of the Illinois road-building industry clashed with one of Rod Blagojevich's defense attorneys Wednesday, saying the former governor had pressured him over and over to come up with campaign contributions.
"You never felt pressure from Governor Blagojevich, did you?" defense attorney Aaron Goldstein asked Gerald Krozel, who was being cross-examined at the former governor's federal corruption trial.
"I sure did," Krozel blurted in a loud voice. "When someone will ask you continuously about money you feel pressure."Goldstein asked Krozel about his testimony that he did not tell Blagojevich that he wouldn't raise funds for him because he feared the governor would cancel a $6 billion tollway program needed by the state's road-building industry in fall 2008 when the economy was floundering.
"You never felt there was any connection, did you?" Goldstein asked."It was obvious," Krozel shot back."It was obvious — did he (Blagojevich) say that?" Goldstein asked.
Krozel said it was clear "when he talked to me about fundraising and tells me how happy I should be about the tollway program."Goldstein then asked whether Krozel felt pressure about being on the witness stand. There was a long pause.
"I don't feel relaxed," said the 70-year-old Krozel, who frequently held his forehead with both hands and stared at the floor of
benge the witness stand. The answer brought laughter from some jurors and many spectators in Judge James B. Zagel's courtroom.
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