Fiery opening statements Thursday gave a glimpse of the showdown to come at the federal corruption trial of former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, who for decades was the most powerful figure in the city’s political landscape.
That power was central to the prosecution’s very first appeal to the jury.
“Ed Burke’s corruption arose from the very potent intersection of opportunity and power,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman said. “The opportunity for self-dealing and the immense power he could exploit to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Burke was indicted in 2019 on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery, accused of using his official positions as longtime 14th Ward alderman and chair of City Council’s Finance Committee to steer private business to his law firm specializing in property taxes. Also indicted alongside Burke were aide Peter Andrews and real estate developer Charles Cui.
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“He was a bribe taker and he was an extortionist,” Chapman said of Burke. “Between 2016 and 2018, at the very height of his power, he corrupted his position as an elected official for one reason: He did it to line his own pockets with money.”
Prosecutors laid out four “episodes” the jury would hear about over the course of the trial, expected to take about six weeks. In his opening statement, Chapman detailed alleged schemes by Burke to withhold his support for a fee increase for the Field Museum of Natural History in exchange for a paid position for a friend’s daughter, as well as three he’s accused of orchestrating to extort business for his law firm: holding up permitting on a Burger King in his ward, soliciting work on the Old Post Office redevelopment, as well as with permitting for a pole sign on the Northwest Side.
“He stayed continuously on the hunt to get what he wanted, whether it was business for the law firm or that job from the Field Museum,” Chapman said. “And that is why he is sitting in this courtroom today.”
Chicago Politics
Burke was indicted after the feds convinced then-25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis, who was himself under investigation, to wear a wire for more than two years on some of Illinois’ biggest political figures: Burke as well as former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, also indicted last year.
Solis, who signed a deferred prosecution agreement in 2018, played a central role in the opening statement of Burke’s defense.
“In summer of 2016, Danny Solis was in a world of trouble,” said Burke’s attorney Chris Gair, “because Danny Solis was a corrupt alderman and the FBI had been investigating him for years, and the FBI had him red-handed, so the FBI did what they do: They showed up at his door early in the morning and said, ‘Gotcha.’ And Danny Solis did what he does: He lied, he squirmed. He weaseled. Then finally he had to admit, they had him.”
“The government threw him a lifeline,” Gair continued, telling jurors Solis cooperated with the feds “with one object in mind: to keep himself from going to prison. And it worked. He saved his skin.”
Defense attorneys dismissed the prosecution's portrait of Burke as a scheming power broker, saying he was a dedicated public servant who did not enrich himself via his work as an alderman.
“Mr. Burke never asked for anything from anyone in this case,” Gair said. “Not for money, not for legal business, not for anything. Never. There will not be one witness who tells you that, there will not be one document that says that.”
“He never made money at all,” he continued. “This is a bribery case without bribes and an extortion case without extortion.”
Burke’s defense played publicly for the first time clips of those recordings captured by Solis, telling jurors Burke is “old school in his dedication to helping people in this ward and this city.”
“Ed Burke is old school and if there’s a problem with city government, he knows somebody. He knows just about everybody in this city,” Gair said, after introducing jurors to Burke’s wife and four children seated in the front row of the courtroom.
The opening statements of Burke’s defense team were slated to continue Friday morning, followed by the opening statements of Andrews’ and Cui’s attorneys.
The jury was sworn in Thursday afternoon following four days of jury selection and a several-day delay after an attorney tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The jury is comprised of nine women and three men, as well as three women and one man serving as alternates. The jurors range in ages from 20 to 69, largely hailing from the suburbs, with the majority reporting they had never heard of Burke before the trial.
