Prosecutors are poised to rest their case in chief Tuesday afternoon in the corruption trial of former Ald. Ed Burke, setting the stage for the highly anticipated testimony of Burke’s former City Council colleague, FBI mole Daniel Solis.
Prosecutors’ final witness, an FBI special agent who testified Monday about the City of Chicago ethics ordinance, is among 37 government witnesses who took the stand over 16 days. Attorneys are expected to spend the morning discussing jury instructions, then re-call the agent to the stand to wrap up her testimony. After that, prosecutors will likely rest.
Solis could take the stand shortly afterward.
The highlight of the trial so far has been the secret recordings made by Solis, who began cooperating with federal investigators in June 2016 after being confronted with evidence of his own corrupt acts.
Solis captured Burke in private meetings and phone conversations as he allegedly plotted to win law business from the New York-based developers of the $600 million Old Post Office project.
[ Ex-Ald. Ed Burke corruption trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury ]
Solis, who has kept a very low profile since he was outed as a government cooperator in January 2019, was spotted entering the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse late Monday morning in anticipation of being called by Burke’s attorneys later in the day.
Prosecutors over the weekend filed a motion asking Kendall to strictly limit the kinds of questions Burke’s attorneys can ask Solis, and suggesting that defense attorneys should offer a more complete preview of what they expect him to say.
The defense also should not be allowed to ask Solis about the details of his cooperation deal, either, prosecutors wrote. But if they are, prosecutors want to elicit testimony that Solis’ cooperation extended beyond just Burke, to show that he had other “bargaining chips” to play in negotiating his deferred-prosecution agreement.
Burke’s attorneys responded that the notion they should have to disclose what is essentially a cross-examination of a hostile witness to the government in advance was “wrong.”
Before the jury was called into court Monday, Kendall warned the defense again, “You can’t call (Solis) just to impeach him. If it suddenly turns into solely impeaching, then he stops his testimony.”
Burke attorney Gair said he’s been trying cases in Chicago for a long time and “I haven’t lied to a federal judge yet, and I’m not gonna start today.”
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“That’s a good thing,” Kendall said.
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 Jr., 73, is charged 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.
Cui, 52, is facing counts of federal program bribery, using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and making false statements to the FBI.