Fox's Hume reported on Illinois AG investigation of Obama grant without noting Obama reportedly "not a focus of the investigation"

Summary: On Special Report, Brit Hume said, "A $100,000 grant that then-Illinois state Senator Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a one-time campaign volunteer is under investigation by the Illinois attorney general." But Hume did not note that a spokesperson for Attorney General Lisa Madigan said "Obama's actions in awarding the money are not a focus of the investigation," according to the Chicago Sun-Times article Hume cited in his report.

During the September 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume cited a September 25 Chicago Sun-Times article and said: "A $100,000 grant that then-Illinois state Senator Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a one-time campaign volunteer is under investigation by the Illinois attorney general." However, Hume did not note, as the Sun-Times reported, that a spokesperson for Attorney General Lisa Madigan said, in the words of the Sun-Times, "Obama's actions in awarding the money are not a focus of the investigation."

From the Sun-Times article:

Attorney General Lisa Madigan -- a Democrat who is supporting Obama's presidential bid -- is investigating "whether this charitable organization properly used its charitable assets, including the state funds it received," Cara Smith, Madigan's deputy chief of staff, said Wednesday.

In addition to the 2001 grant that Obama directed to the housing association as a "member initiative," the not-for-profit group got a separate $20,000 state grant in 2006.

Madigan's office has notified Obama's presidential campaign of the probe, which was launched this week. But Obama's actions in awarding the money are not a focus of the investigation, Smith said.

[...]

Obama spokesman Michael Ortiz said Wednesday the senator's staff in Washington will monitor the Madigan probe and an additional review under way by Gov. [Rod] Blagojevich's administration to make sure "the taxpayer funds allocated for the construction of the garden are recuperated from CBHA if the agencies determine that the funds were not properly spent." Obama's goal is to ensure the site "be used in a way that benefits the community and that any taxpayer dollars allocated are spent wisely," Ortiz said.

The Drudge Report linked to the Sun-Times article under the headline, "PAPER: Obama's $100K garden grant being probed..."

During Hume's report, on-screen graphics displayed an image of Obama with dollar signs and the words "GREEN THUMB" and "CURRENCY EXCHANGE":

From the September 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: A $100,000 grant that then-Illinois state Senator Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a one-time campaign volunteer is under investigation by the Illinois attorney general. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the grant was intended for a botanical garden in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, but the garden was never built and the money may have been misspent. Records obtained by the Sun-Times show $65,000 of the grant went to the wife of Kenny Smith, an Obama campaign volunteer in his failed congressional run in 2000.

Smith heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project. Records show Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to a construction company his wife created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun.

—E.H.H.