The Sun-Times' Natasha Korecki reports that a federal judge will likely release to the U.S. Senate ethics committee -- and apparently the public as well -- secretly-recorded conversations from last fall between now-Sen. Roland Burris and Rob Blagojevich, the former governor's brother and campaign fund chairman. More from the Tribune:

Timothy Wright, a lawyer for Burris, said he also did not object to the release and said he believed the tape would show Burris did nothing wrong. "We think it is what it is," Wright said. "The truth is coming out. We think it helps to vindicate the senator."

Wright's statement suggests there has been an effort to obscure or twist the facts about these conversations. But if we haven't yet encountered the "truth," the fault lies with Burris, whose accounts of what happened last fall have been all over the map.

Let's take a quick stroll through Burris' various versions of events:

The January 5 affidavit

After being appointed to the vacant U.S. Senate seat by then-Gov. Blagojevich in late December, Burris submitted an affidavit to the Illinois House impeachment committee dated January 5, 2009.  It stated:

Prior to the December 26, 2008 telephone call from Mr. [Sam] Adams Jr., there was not any contact between myself or any of my representatives with Gov. Blagojevich or any of his representatives regarding my appointment to the United States Senate.

The impeachment committee appearance

When he appeared before the impeachment committee on January 8, however, Burris disclosed that he had talked to former Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk about the Senate seat the previous September -- violating the spirit of the original affidavit.  Later in the hearing, State Rep. Jil Tracy had this exchange with Burris:

Tracy: "So you don't recall that there was anybody else besides Lon Monk that you expressed an interest to at that point?"

Burris: "No, I can't recall.

The February 4 affidavit

After declaring that he had passed his appearance before the House panel with "flying colors," those opposing the Burris appointment relented and he was eventually sworn in as a U.S. Senator on January 15.  Several weeks later, he voluntarily submitted a new affidavit to the House impeachment committee detailing several additional communications with Blagojevich representatives in the months leading up to the appointment.  Here's what Burris disclosed regarding Rob Blagojevich:

I recall that Governor Blagojevich's brother, Rob Blagojevich, called me three times to seek my assistance in fund-raising for Governor Blagojevich. The first conversation was in early October, 2008, and the other two were shortly after the election. During the first conversation I asked Rob Blagojevich what was going on with the selection of a successor if then-Senator Obama were elected President, and he said he had heard my name mentioned in the discussions. In one of the other conversations (I believe the last one), I mentioned the Senate seat in the context of saying that I could not contribute to Governor Blagojevich because it could be viewed as an attempt to curry favor with him regarding his decision to appoint a successor to President Obama. I did not raise or donate any funds to Governor Blagojevich after the fundraiser on June 27, 2008.

His February 16 comments

Then, talking to reporters on February 16, Burris appeared to once again contradict himself.  In contrast to the bolded passage above, he stated that he had attempted to "put a fundraiser on" for Gov. Blagojevich, but had found scant interest:

“And he [Rob Blagojevich] says, ‘We need to raise some funds. We hope that you could probably get some of your friends together.' I said, ‘What type of money we looking for?’ He says, ‘Can you raise us 10 or 15 thousand dollars?’

“I said, ‘I don’t know but I can’t do it now because we are in the midst of an election. Call me after the election.’ He said, ‘Fine.’"

“So some time shortly after Obama was elected, the brother called. And now in the meantime, I’d talked to some people about trying to see if we could put a fund-raiser on. Nobody was—they said we aren’t giving money to the governor. And I said, ‘OK, you know,  I can’t tell them what to do with their money.’"

“So when the brother called me back, I said, ‘Well, look Rob...I can’t raise any money from my friends. I said, maybe my partner and I, you can talk this over and see, could we go to some other people that we might be able to talk to that would help us out if we give--because we give a fund-raiser in the law office, nobody going to show up. We’ll probably have a thousand dollars for you or something to that effect.'"

Again, if we don't know at this point what the "truth" of the matter looks like, the fault is Burris' own.

UPDATE (3:30 p.m.): The Sun-Times reports on some of the "truth" included on those tapes:

In a November conversation caught on an FBI wiretap, Roland Burris promised Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother that he’d write the governor a campaign check by mid-December, Burris’ lawyer said today.

That was about a month before Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to the U.S. Senate.

But lawyer Timothy Wright told the Chicago Sun-Times today that his client never sent the check because he believed it wasn’t a good idea given Burris’ interest in the U.S. Senate seat appointment. Wright said Burris’ decision not to send the check had nothing to do with Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest.