Federal prosecutors allege Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) made a derogatory comment about Jewish people as authorities investigated him for using his position on the City Council to steer business toward his private law firm.
In discussions about the renovation of the Old Post Office, Burke allegedly made the comment that, “Well, you know as well as I do, Jews are Jews and they’ll deal with Jews to the exclusion of everybody else unless . . . unless there’s a reason for them to use a Christian.”
Prosecutors called the comment “distasteful” but said it was taken to mean Burke would only be hired to do tax work for an individual if Burke could help that person out as an alderman.
The comment appears in a heavily redacted 227-page brief filed by prosecutors as part of Burke’s criminal case in federal court. It alleges that the investigation into Burke revealed him “to be thoroughly corrupt and worthy of prosecution.”
Prosecutors also called recordings of Burke’s phone calls “powerful evidence” of his involvement in criminal activity and said he is trying to keep them from a jury.
It has been nearly two years since the feds hit Burke with a blockbuster racketeering indictment. Burke political aide Peter Andrews and developer Charles Cui were charged along with him.
U.S. District Judge Robert Dow had at one point set aside time in May, June and July of this year for a trial. But that was before the coronavirus pandemic upended the courts — and before defense attorneys filed hundreds of pages of pretrial motions last summer.
Meanwhile, Burke is nearly two years through his latest term on the City Council. He was re-elected in February 2019, less than two months after an initial set of criminal charges were filed against him. His lawyers told Dow earlier this month they were still waiting for key evidence from prosecutors related to former Ald. Danny Solis, who cooperated with the feds against Burke.
The Chicago Sun-Times first revealed Solis’ cooperation in January 2019. In their pretrial motions last summer, Burke’s lawyers wrote that Solis struck what’s known as a deferred-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors early that same month.
Burke’s lawyers also alleged that prosecutors withheld crucial information from Chicago’s chief federal judge as they sought to eavesdrop on City Hall phone lines, as well as Burke’s cellphone.
They complained that prosecutors had refused to say exactly how the Burke investigation began.
“The government’s investigation seems to spring out of thin air,” they wrote then.
Burke’s lawyers said the feds sought to tap Solis’ cellphone on Sept. 26, 2014, more than a month after Solis had been secretly recorded in a meeting with House Speaker Michael Madigan. The feds listened to Solis’ calls until Aug. 21, 2015, according to the Burke court filings.
Burke’s lawyers said Solis agreed to cooperate with the feds after they confronted him in June 2016. Though Burke’s lawyers repeatedly described Solis as “desperate,” Burke’s team insisted that Solis told prosecutors “he had never been involved in any criminal wrongdoing with Ald. Burke — with whom he had served in the City Council for almost twenty-five years.”
The defense attorneys said the investigations of Solis and Burke “apparently intersected” in July 2016, when Solis and Burke attended the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. It was there that Burke’s lawyers say he — along with other politicians — approached Solis about contractors for the Old Post Office renovation. Burke recommended a wrecking company. That, Burke’s lawyers said, appeared to prompt prosecutors to deploy Solis against Burke.
They also said that, on May 1, 2017, the feds sought permission to wiretap six phone lines at the office of the Chicago City Council finance committee, which Burke led. That wiretap was soon expanded, and the feds wound up intercepting 2,185 calls from City Hall phones before abandoning the wiretap on May 31, 2017.
The feds also monitored Burke’s cellphone from May 15, 2017, until Feb. 10, 2018, Burke’s lawyers said. They described it as “the longest wiretap in the United States that concluded in 2018,” and they said the feds wound up recording 9,101 calls between the City Hall and cellphone wiretaps.
Burke’s lawyers alleged he was targeted by the feds, and that Solis wasn’t the first government cooperator to work against him. They said that, from Feb. 2, 2015, until Aug. 13, 2015, an unnamed cooperator from another federal case in Chicago was “contacting Ald. Burke regularly in an attempt to develop evidence against him.”
“Here, again, the government came up empty-handed, and yet it zealously pressed on,” Burke’s lawyers wrote.
