Prosecutors will not call Obama friend Eric Whitaker to the stand

SRINGFIELD — Federal prosecutors said Tuesday they will not call one of President Barack Obama’s closest friends, Dr. Eric E. Whitaker, before a jury hearing a multimillion-dollar grand-fraud case because of “baseless accusations” they say Whitaker leveled the day before.

“We are not going to call Dr. Whitaker as a witness,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy A. Bass told Judge Richard Mills, who ruled Monday that Whitaker would have been a “hostile witness” had prosecutors decided to call him.

Bass grilled Whitaker for more than two hours Monday without jurors present. Prosecutors had sought to declare him “hostile” because he’d stopped cooperating with them in 2012 after they asked him if he’d had a “personal relationship” with his former chief of staff, Quinshaunta Golden — who’s awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to theft and bribery charges — and also because they’d learned he’d frequently communicated with Chicago businessman Leon Dingle Jr., 77.

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