He may be one of the important government moles in Chicago political history, but former Ald. Daniel Solis is not expected to take the witness stand for federal prosecutors at the upcoming racketeering trial of his old colleague, ex-Ald. Edward Burke.

Prosecutors notified defense teams via a letter Wednesday about the tactical decision to keep Solis from testifying, meeting a deadline set by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, sources with knowledge of the letter told the Tribune. Prosecutors did leave one caveat, saying they could potentially call Solis if Burke’s lawyers tried to present an entrapment defense.

While Solis will apparently not be called as a witness, under the federal rules of evidence, prosecutors can still present the undercover recordings he made of Burke as part of his secret cooperation.

The decision by the U.S. attorney’s office was not a surprise, as Solis will now be spared what certainly would have been a grueling, multiday cross-examination by Burke’s seasoned attorneys covering Solis’ own alleged wrongdoing and his deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office.

Prosecutors do run a bit of a risk, however, that jurors might wonder why they never heard from Solis and question his motivations.

There could be some fallout in the public eye as well, given that few elected officials caught abusing their office are given deals like the one Solis got on his case.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Wednesday. Solis’ attorney, Lisa Noller, also had no comment.

Meanwhile, the move also could have reverberations in another high-profile public corruption case — the prosecution of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who scheduled to go on trial on April 1. Solis also made secret recordings of Madigan that helped lead to his indictment.

Burke, 79, is set for trial on Nov. 6 along with two co-defendants. He was originally charged in a criminal complaint in January 2019. He was indicted four months later on 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.

The 59-page indictment outlined a series of schemes in which Burke allegedly tried to muscle developers into hiring his law firm, Klafter & Burke, to appeal their property taxes. Among the projects Burke tried to capitalize on was the massive $800 million renovation of the Old Post Office in the West Loop, according to the charges. Solis recorded numerous conversations with Burke about that deal, records show.

Also charged was Burke’s longtime aide, Peter Andrews, who was accused of assisting the alderman in attempting to shake down two business owners seeking to renovate a Burger King restaurant in the 14th Ward.

Solis’ legal saga began in 2016 when he secretly agreed to wear a wire for the FBI and helped build racketeering cases against Burke and Madigan, two of the longest-serving and most powerful politicians in the state.

A bombshell court filing made public in 2019 showed the FBI spent more than two years investigating Solis before he was confronted and flipped, secretly listening in on thousands of phone calls as the alderman solicited everything from campaign donations to sexual services at a massage parlor.

In exchange for official action or promises, Solis solicited a “steady flow of personal benefits,” including Viagra pills and prostitution services from a political operative who represented a company seeking an exemption from the city’s water ordinance, the FBI search warrant affidavit alleged.

The deferred prosecution deal was signed by Solis on the day after Christmas 2018 and kept secret for nearly 3 ½ years before the U.S. attorney’s office finally put it on the record last year.

As part of the deal, Solis was charged in a one-count criminal information with corruptly soliciting campaign donations from a real estate developer in exchange for zoning changes in 2015, when Solis was head of the City Council’s zoning committee. That charge will be dropped in three years if Solis continues to cooperate.

Last year, the federal prosecutor leading the Burke and Madigan investigations delivered an impassioned defense of the deal with Solis, telling the federal judge overseeing the high-profile case that Solis’ cooperation was perhaps “singular” even in the city’s long history of political corruption.

During the course of his undercover work, Solis personally made “hundreds of recordings” and helped form the basis of government requests for wiretaps on others, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said.

“Some may view (Solis’ deal) as being with little precedent, but what Mr. Solis did also was with little precedent,” Bhachu said. “He didn’t just talk. He took action. He worked with the federal government for six years to expose corruption.”

When Solis was confronted by investigators back in 2016, Bhachu said, he “had a choice” about what his path would be, including to refuse to cooperate, deny accountability, and fight any charges that came his way.

“That is an easy path that many in this city and state have followed,” Bhachu said. “Mr. Solis chose a more difficult path, judge. He cooperated with the government for approximately six years. When we asked him to meet, he did so. When he was asked to make a recording with a third party, he did it.”

“A lot of people talk about cleaning up corruption, and often all it amounts to is talk,” Bhachu said. “It’s rare when someone actually delivers, and in this regard, Mr. Solis delivered.”

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Bhachu also said Solis has suffered for his corruption, even if it won’t include a felony conviction. He lost his seat in the City Council, he can’t run for public office again, and he’s been ostracized by former colleagues, according to the prosecutor.

“Life is never going to be the same for him again,” Bhachu said. “These are all real consequences.”

Solis, who is collecting a nearly $100,000 annual city pension, has been free on bond since he was charged in 2022.

Madigan, 81, and McClain, 75, are charged in a 23-count indictment with racketeering conspiracy and individual counts of using interstate facilities in aid of bribery, wire fraud and attempted extortion. They have pleaded not guilty, and a jury trial is set for next April.

Solis’ recordings in that case include a video-recorded meeting with Madigan, where the speaker allegedly talked about a deal to sell a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown to developers in exchange for them hiring his private law firm to do tax work.

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