During the ongoing federal corruption trial of former Ald. Ed Burke jurors heard Burke in his own words.
“You're not gonna get in any trouble and I’m certainly not gonna get in any trouble at this stage in the game,” Burke can be heard telling fellow Ald. Danny Solis during a meeting in October 2016.
Solis was secretly recording that conversation – and many others – as an FBI mole.
Those recordings underscored the prosecutor’s main allegations in their case against Burke, one of the most powerful politicians in Chicago history.
Federal prosecutors allege Burke made several attempts - using his power as alderman and finance committee chair - to steer business to his law firm.
In that same 2016 meeting, Burke can be heard telling the developer of Chicago’s Old Main Post Office, “we’d love to present our firm to you,” and later adding, “between Danny and I there aren’t too many people around town we don’t know.”
Burke’s defense team has looked to poke holes in the case by pointing to Solis’ cooperation with the feds as he was himself under investigation for taking bribes – and highlighting for the jury that none of the alleged schemes of bribery and extortion resulted in any personal gain for Burke.
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Late Wednesday after court had ended for the day, Burke’s attorneys made a motion for a mistrial after a witness on the stand referred to the “old school“ Chicago way of doing things. When asked by the prosecutor to clarify what he meant, he said: “very corrupt.”
Burke’s attorney said that was opinion that violated the court’s order. Judge Virginia Kendall did not issue a ruling but asked both the prosecutors and defense team to submit their arguments in writing and the judge would address it Thursday morning.
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