Obama: Nobody Brought Rezko’s Problems “To My Attention”

ABC News’ Jonathan Greenberger Reports: After coming under fire repeatedly for his connections with indicted Chicago slumlord Antoin "Tony’" Rezko, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., yesterday responded to the critics.

Following a speech on foreign policy to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Obama told print reporters that until recently, he was unaware Rezko was a slumlord. 

"Should I have known these buildings were in a state of disrepair? My answer would be that it wasn’t brought to my attention," the Chicago Sun-Times reported Obama said.  "As far as I can tell, we were never contacted by Rezko tenants."

This despite the fact that, as Obama admitted, Rezko "had buildings in my district that apparently were not managed properly."

From 1995 until 2004, Obama received more than $50,000 in campaign contributions from Rezko, Rezko’s family, and his associates.  And as the Chicago Sun-Times reported yesterday, Obama did some legal work in the late 1990s on behalf of Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp.

While Obama accused his constituents of not bringing to his attention the problems with Rezko’s buildings, he didn’t rule out the possibility that someone may have tried to alert his office. 

According to the Chicago Tribune, Obama said it was "possible" that a constituent may have written or called his Illinois State Senate office "saying, ‘We’re in a building, and we’re unhappy with the service here.’"