Eric Whitaker, M.D., Governor Blagojevich, Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, and Peoria's OSF--December 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Eric Whitaker, M.D., Governor Blagojevich, Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, and Peoria's OSF
One of his friends is Eric Whitaker, M.D. A few years ago Obama recommended to Tony Rezko that Dr. Whitaker be given a State job. With the help of Rezko and Governor Blagojevich, Dr. Whitaker was "stunned" to find out that he was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
Why would Tony Rezko be involved with IDPH? See this article by Lynn Sweet from the Chicago Sun-Times. This article is about Obama's pal Dr. Whitaker and the doctor's ties to Rezko. Also, see the comments which follow the article.
One of Dr. Whitaker's jobs at IDPH was controlling the budget of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. This Planning Board controls when new hospitals are built, expanded, etc. This Planning Board was very corrupt and controlled (at least for a while) by Rezko, Stuart Levine, and Governor Blagojevich.
For years I have believed (like many others) that there is conflict of interest in Peoria regarding our Emergency Medical Services (EMS) run by OSF's Drs. George Hevesy and Rick Miller.
And Dr. Whitaker seemed to enjoy giving OSF awards for EMS advocacy in the Peoria Area.
Yet several years ago when I wrote Dr. Whitaker detailing my concerns regarding EMS conflict of interest in Peoria, he referred me to the EMS division of IDPH. It sure seems like he was heavily involved in EMS in Illinois.
I wonder why Dr. Whitaker didn't address my concerns in Peoria?
Photo: José M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
One thing seems certain. President Obama’s close Chicago friend and basketball/golf buddy, Eric Whitaker, probably doesn’t have what it takes to run an agency. It’s one thing not to know one time what your underlings are up to; it’s another not to know repeatedly.
“Whitaker hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.” is a sentence found in nearly every news story about scandals involving those around him, but, so far, not him.
Two years ago I emailed my editor to suggest a post on what appeared to be lapses in the Chicago-born physician’s time as an administrator—mostly during his tenure as Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, a position he held from 2003 to 2007. My then-editor replied, “Yes, absolutely.” The story fell through the lines on my “pending,” list, but it remained there, and I returned to my notes in the wake of the indictment last week of Whitaker’s former top aide.
Here’s a rundown of what one could construe as Whitaker’s blind spots—oldest first, as in the two that prompted my email to my former editor.
On September 19, 2011, Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell wrote about assorted scandals that, in effect, took funds and programs out of the hands of low-income people who desperately needed them. Crediting Sun-Times investigative reporters Chris Fusco and Dave McKinney, Mitchell described federal probes of “a range of `faith-based initiatives’ and health-outreach programs that were overseen by Dr. Eric Whitaker, President Barack Obama’s vacation buddy. Whitaker is not accused of any wrongdoing.”
Included in that group was a former program director of the Chicago chapter of the National Black Nurses Association whose alleged crimes Mitchell described as “diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds … Prosecutors allege that of the $1 million in grants [she] received under Whitaker and other state-agency directors, she siphoned off $500,000 for her personal use.”
The next day, the Sun-Times’ Fusco and McKinney wrote about an AIDS-awareness program, the nonprofit Working for Togetherness—under the control of the Illinois Department of Public Health then headed by Whitaker—aimed at reaching people in “poor African-American neighborhoods.” In 2004, Fusco and McKinney wrote, “Whitaker’s department and the Illinois Department of Human Services gave Working for Togetherness $150,000 to raise awareness about AIDS in African-American communities by driving around and providing HIV test kits and information.” The attention-grabbing vehicle was a used $45,196 red, fully loaded, and “blinged” Hummer—featuring “game consoles, custom sound, television, DVD, public address, custom paints and tire rims"—bought, at least partly, with state funds.
A FOIA request that produced emails from Whitaker’s inbox included this one from his then chief of staff, Quinshaunta Golden: “Shame on whoever thought the [Working for Togetherness leader] would do something like this. What will be said now that [the staffer and his wife] are using their own personal vehicle to do outreach?”
Turns out that the now deceased Working for Togetherness leader, according to the reporters, “…used state grant money to buy the [Hummer].” Whitaker “who hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing,” ordered that half the grant money used to buy the Hummer be repaid by the now defunct Working for Togetherness.
If the name Quinshaunta Golden sounds familiar, it should. Golden was indicted earlier this month on seven federal counts including bribery, theft, witness tampering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice for allegedly “conspiring with state grant recipients to divert federal money [as much as $433,000] into her own pockets and then trying to cover it up,” according to Chicago Tribune reporters Ray Long and Hal Dardick.
Eric Whitaker left the Illinois Department of Public Health in late 2007 to work with Michelle Obama at the University of Chicago Medical Center. (She was vice president of community and external relations; he carried the titles associate dean and executive vice president, strategic affiliations, in charge of the Urban Health Initiative aimed at directing low income residents away from UC Medical Center’s emergency room and into neighborhood clinics.) Golden joined Whitaker at the U of C Medical Center in early 2008. According to Fusco and McKinney, money from the alleged “kickback scheme began flowing to Golden in July 2007, when Whitaker headed the health department and Golden was his chief of staff. It allegedly kept flowing until October 2008. By that time, Golden and Whitaker had left state government to work together at the University of Chicago Medical Center." (Whitaker left the UC Medical Center job last March.)
Writing about the same case, Sun-Times reporters Fusco and McKinney note that “There was no indication in the indictment that Whitaker knew of the wrongdoing,” and quote a statement from Whitaker, "I had no firsthand knowledge of the activities outlined in this indictment and was not involved in any way. As requested by the U.S. attorney, I have been fully cooperating with the investigation into these matters."
Later in the story, the reporters note, “[U.S. Attorney James] Lewis answered vaguely when asked if there is any evidence that Whitaker knew about Golden’s alleged wrongdoing. `There’s nothing in this material you’re being provided with today that indicates that,’ he said. Pressed on whether that answer meant Whitaker did not know about it, Lewis grinned and said, `I think I just answered that.’”
No one is suggesting that Barack Obama had any knowledge of the alleged offenses, but, as reported by the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, while a state senator in 2003, Obama did recommend to now incarcerated Gov. Blagojevich—Obama’s go-between was none other than the also incarcerated Tony Rezko—that Blago appoint Whitaker to the job as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The Department of Public Health under Whitaker, Sweet adds, “also got caught up in scandal. He oversaw the budget of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which approves medical construction projects. Rezko and his associates controlled that board, which they used to solicit kickbacks and payoffs, according to testimony at Rezko's trial. Rezko was convicted. Whitaker, who said he wasn't involved in the board's day-to-day operations, was never accused of any wrongdoing.”
Eric Whitaker met Barack Obama when both were graduate students at Harvard—Obama at the law school; Whitaker, studying for his master’s in public health. The friendship, which started on the basketball court, endured. Whitaker was one of 11 who celebrated the President’s 52nd birthday last week with a golf game at Andrews Air Force Base followed by celebrations at Camp David. Whitaker and his wife, Cheryl—also a physician who practiced, in the late ‘90s at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she became a close friend and gym workout buddy of Michelle Obama—often accompany the Obamas on vacations in Martha’s Vineyard and Hawaii.
I interviewed Cheryl Whitaker in November 2008 while writing a profile of Michelle. She told me about their more than decade-long friendship, and about traveling with Michelle during the 2008 primary and general election to such battleground states as Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada.
Finally, Ed Klein, magazine editor (Newsweek, New York Times Magazine) turned biographer, writes in The Amateur, his harshly negative book about President Obama published in the spring of 2012, that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, told Klein on tape that, during the 2008 campaign, a close friend of Obama’s—who Klein later identified him as Eric Whitaker—offered him via email $150,000 if the controversial Obama family pastor would stop preaching and giving interviews about his relationship with candidate Obama. According to Klein, Wright refused the offer.
Whitaker denied the allegation, telling ABC News via email, “'I have received your message asking whether I’d offered any sort of a bribe during the 2008 campaign. The answer is no. Thank you for giving me the chance to respond.’ He didn’t respond to a follow-up question. Rev. Wright did not respond to numerous requests for comment.”Federal prosecutors won't call Obama friend Whitaker to testify
For weeks, federal authorities turned up the heat on President Barack Obama's friend Eric Whitaker as they pursued a case against a Chicago couple who allegedly spent grant money on a lavish lifestyle while he was the state’s public health chief.
Prosecutors maintained Whitaker stopped cooperating with them months ago. They said he wouldn’t answer questions on whether he had a “personal relationship” with his former chief of staff. And they got a judge to declare him a hostile witness in the grant fraud trial.
On Tuesday, however, federal prosecutors decided they wouldn't risk putting Whitaker on the stand before the jury that will decide whether Leon and Karin Dingle are guilty of skimming funds designed to fight AIDS, pandemic flu and cervical cancer.
The announcement by prosecutors came less than 24 hours after Whitaker testified at a hearing without jurors present that he had “concerns” that the ongoing federal investigation into state grant fraud was racially or politically motivated.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Bass told U.S. District Judge Richard Mills that Whitaker had made “baseless allegations” and that prosecutors would not call him in a case they hope to rest this week.
Bass did not elaborate or point to a particular statement or statements by Whitaker, who ticked off numerous complaints at a Monday hearing and said he felt like he received unnecessary added scrutiny.
“I'm not hostile. I'm angry. But I'm not hostile,” testified Whitaker, who has golfed and socialized with Obama in a friendship that dates back many years.
Whitaker's presence in Springfield represented a high-profile backdrop to the Dingles’ money laundering trial. Authorities have said the Dingles spent more than $3 million in grant money on luxury cars, yacht club expenses and vacation getaway spots in Savannah, Ga., and Hilton Head, S.C.
The Dingles are among 14 people indicted since 2011 in cases arising from investigations into state grants by a Springfield-based public corruption task force. Ten people have pleaded guilty to corruption, including ex-state Rep. Connie Howard, D-Chicago, and a jury convicted Jeri Wright of multiple counts in a money laundering trial. She is the daughter of Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was not accused of wrongdoing.
In a series of motions between the prosecution and the Dingle defense team, Bass had indicated Whitaker could have key information about the case but that the cooperation he promised had stopped months ago. Bass sought the rare hostile witness designation to allow more leeway in questioning Whitaker if the government had called him to testify before the jury.
On the stand Monday, Whitaker, who is African American, suggested authorities in central Illinois were involved in a “selective investigation” and noted they snared several black defendants in a probe of grants distributed during now-imprisoned ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration.
Bass pointed out that Blagojevich and political fixer Tony Rezko are not African-American and were prosecuted in federal court for crimes that sent them to prison, but Whitaker countered their cases were handled in Chicago rather than in central Illinois.
In his filings, Bass maintained Whitaker had refused to answer whether he had a personal relationship with Quinshaunta Golden, who was Whitaker's chief of staff at public health and has pleaded guilty to corruption in the case.
In front of the judge Monday, Whitaker testified it was “fair to say” he had more than a professional relationship with Golden, who is the niece of Democratic U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and had oversight of the grants.
Whitaker met with Bass and other federal officials Monday morning. Bass offered Mills the opportunity to review a recording of the interview, but the judge skipped the recording and opted to personally observe Whitaker during questioning.
rlong@tribpub.com
Twitter @RayLong
Eric E. Whitaker is a prominent African-American physician, public health practitioner, and health policy expert. He is a close friend of President Barack Obama.
Education and career
Whitaker received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Grinnell College in 1987, and in 1993 a master's degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health and a medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Whitaker was most recently the Executive Vice President, Strategic Affiliations and Associate Dean of Community-based Research at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC).[1] He was responsible for leading the UCMC’s Urban Health Initiative, linking the Medical Center’s mission of patient care, teaching and research for the purpose of improving the health of residents of the South Side of Chicago.[2] Until September 2007, he served as Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).[3] In this capacity, Whitaker oversaw an agency with a budget of $450 million with over 1,200 employees statewide, as well as 3 laboratories and seven regional offices. Prior to his appointment at the State, Whitaker was an attending physician in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and a member of its Collaborative Research Unit. His research interests include HIV/AIDS prevention and minority health, particularly for black males.
In 2018 and currently in 2019, Whitaker has been co-owner and -operator of Los Angeles-based Pipeline Health, which in January 2019 bought Tenet Healthcare's three remaining Chicago-area for-profit hospitals: Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois; Westlake Hospital, Melrose Park, Illinois; and West Suburban Medical Center, Oak Park, Illinois.[4][5] Then, in February 2019 Whitaker announced that Pipeline Health would close Westlake Hospital within five months, keeping the other two open.[6] On April 9, 2019, the hospital "suspended services."[7]
Recognition and achievements
Whitaker helped found Project Brotherhood: A Black Men’s Clinic, a weekly clinic for African American men housed in Woodlawn Adult Health Center on Chicago's South Side, which is affiliated with the Cook County Bureau of Health Services.[8]
In 2003, he received the Laureate Award from the American College of Physicians.[9] In 2000, the project received the highest award accorded by the National Association of Public Hospital and Health Systems. In 1991, Whitaker represented the 30,000 members of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) as its president while testifying twice before the U.S. Congress regarding national health insurance and minority health issues.[10] In November 2003, he was named as one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ Forty under Forty, Chicago’s rising stars in business and government.[11] in a 2020 Holiday letter to Subcribers, Dr. Whitaker introduces himself as both Founder & CEO of Chicago-based Zing Health, Medicare Advantage plan.
Whitaker serves on the boards of Partnership for Prevention, Grinnell College, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Council on Gll Affairs (co-chair of Global Health Policy Roundtable), and the Economic Club of Chicago.
Controversy
Whitaker served director of Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) from 2003 until 2007. His chief of staff at the IDPH, Quinshaunta Golden, was subsequently indicted on charges of fraud and theft involving multiple grants made by Whitaker's department.[12][13] After his term at IDPH, he moved to the University of Chicago's School of Medicine, together with Ms. Golden,[14] where he was executive vice president of strategic affiliations and associate dean.[15]
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