Prosecutors Thursday are expected to highlight former Ald. Ed Burke’s alleged attempts to shake down the developers leading the $600 million Old Post Office renovation as closing arguments in Burke’s landmark corruption case continue.
The post office scheme is the centerpiece of the sprawling racketeering indictment against Burke and features dozens of videotaped meetings and recorded phone calls made by Burke’s colleague, then-Ald. Daniel Solis, who was secretly cooperating with the FBI.
[ Ex-Ald. Ed Burke corruption trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury ]
After Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur wraps up her remarks to the jury Thursday morning, Burke attorney Joseph Duffy will get his turn to argue their case, which has so far hinged on claims that Burke never offered to perform any official action in exchange for developers hiring his private law firm, Klafter & Burke, to do property tax appeals.
Burke’s legal team has also noted that for all of the allegations, Burke was never paid a dime in any of schemes he’s charged with. And they’ve had choice words for Solis, who they say was desperate to save his own skin and fed Burke a steady stream of FBI-scripted lies to get him to say something incriminating.
The racketeering charges allege Burke used his significant City Hall power to try to get business for his private law firm from developers of the Old Post Office, owners of a Burger King in his Southwest Side 14th Ward and a developer desperate to install a sign for a Binny’s Beverage Depot in Portage Park.
He is also accused of threatening to block an admission fee increase at the Field Museum to retaliate against officials who failed to give a paid internship to a daughter of one of his longtime City Council allies.
In her closing argument Wednesday, MacArthur spent three hours painting an excruciatingly detailed and unflattering portrait of Burke, the fallen power broker who for decades stood at the pinnacle of the old Chicago Democratic political machine.
Despite the polished veneer he presented to the public, Burke was corrupt to the core, MacArthur said, petty, fiercely protective of his own power, and constantly looking for a chance to line his own pockets.
“Mr. Burke’s hand was out again and again, demanding money and benefits from the very people he was supposed to act on behalf of,” MacArthur told jurors. “Ed Burke was a powerful and corrupt politician and this was his racket.”
Closings are expected to be lengthy, with MacArthur’s initial argument expected to last about five hours in total, followed by a full day’s worth of defense remarks and then jury instructions.
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U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall has said she is hopeful jurors will get the case by the end of the week.
Solis, who turned FBI mole in 2016 and cooperated extensively against Burke and others, secretly recorded dozens of conversations with Burke that were played for the jury. He was called to the stand Tuesday by Burke’s defense in an attempt to dirty him up and poke holes in his cooperation, but largely held his cool under intense questioning.
The recordings include lines that have surely stuck in jurors’ minds, perhaps most memorably when Burke asked Solis on a wiretapped call, “So did we land the, uh, the tuna?” when talking about getting the Old Post Office business.
Burke, 79, who served 54 years as alderman before leaving the City Council in May, is charged with 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
His longtime ward aide, Peter Andrews, 73, is charged as part of the Burger King episode with one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
Real estate developer Charles Cui, 52, is facing counts stemming from the Binny’s pole sign chapter of federal program bribery, using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and making false statements to the FBI.