None of the people Ed Burke allegedly tried to shake down ever raised concerns to law enforcement until the government came calling, Burke’s attorney told jurors in closing arguments Friday at the ex-alderman’s corruption trial.
“Nobody complained, nobody thought they were a victim until the FBI knocked on their door and started playing tapes,” said Joseph Duffy, who then began knocking on the lectern as if he was an agent at someone’s house. “Oh, I think you were a victim!”
Advertisement
Duffy told jurors that much of the case was pieced together after the government lost confidence in ex-Ald. Daniel Solis, who secretly recorded Burke for more than two years.
It’s fair “to conclude Danny Solis is out for Danny Solis and (is) a bit of a conman, plain and simple,” Duffy said. “What do they have at the end of 30 months? They’ve got Danny Solis, who they don’t trust … They take their tapes, they go out to four people, and they say ‘you’re a victim.’”
Advertisement
TODAY'S TOP VIDEOS
One of the main targets of an alleged shakedown, Harry Skydell, the developer of the massive Old Post Office renovation project, didn’t testify for prosecutors either, Duffy noted.
“The only appropriate inference to be drawn by the failure to call Mr. Skydell, he would not have supported the government’s theory,” Duffy said, noting that Skydell was also “harassed” by Solis.
Closing arguments in Burke’s landmark corruption case are slated to wrap up Friday, closing out the trial’s sixth week.
Jurors likely will not begin deliberations until Monday, after lawyers for Burke and his two co-defendants finish their closings and prosecutors have had a chance to present rebuttal arguments.
Moving to allegations that Burke tried to shake down a local Burger King, Duffy noted that Burke’s interactions with owner Shoukat Dhanani were actually warm and friendly, including during a December 2017 meeting at the Union League Club.
“They were in a festive mood,” Duffy said. “They were at a Christmas party. Can you imagine somebody is going to shake you down and you’re going to sit with them for 90 minutes? Use your common sense.”
After their meeting, Dhanani wanted to send Burke a bottle of rum, Duffy said: “Who sends rum to the guy who just extorted you?”
To buttress his arguments, Duffy cited a January 2018 call Dhanani made to apologize to Burke for being unable to attend a fundraiser for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle as she prepared to run for mayor in 2019, a contest she eventually lost.
Dhanani, whose business is based in Texas, said bad weather would prevent him from going to the fund-raiser, which was to be held at Burke’s home.
Dhanani sent a $10,000 contribution to Preckwinkle, which eventually hit a snag because it was over the limit for an individual contribution. When it was later exposed as part of the Burke case, it significantly hurt Preckwinkle’s campaign.
But Duffy disputed that Burke wanted to do any more than invite Dhanani to meet movers and shakers in Chicago and questioned why Burke would welcome someone to his home that he wanted to extort.
“One thing is for sure,” Duffy said. “There is no extortion here of anybody.”
Duffy also shot back against the government’s two other allegations: that Burke threatened to hold up a fee increase for the Field Museum after they snubbed an internship application from his goddaughter, and claims that he pulled strings on behalf of a developer because the developer signed on with his law firm.
Burke had no intent to violate the law or extort anyone, Duffy said - he was just a conscientious public servant who loves his city, his family and his church.
“You’ve heard from witnesses who have known him and worked alongside him in city government for decades. He is nothing like the person being portrayed in this courtroom,” Duffy said, noting that Burke is about to turn 80. “... You should send Ed Burke home to celebrate his birthday!”
Following Duffy was attorney Patrick Blegen, who represents Burke’s longtime ward aide and co-defendant Peter Andrews Jr.
Blegen contended prosecutors failed to show Andrews knew anything about the Burke’s alleged efforts to shake down the Burger King owners.
Blegen argued Andrews only met with the owners and Burke once at the Burger King for 24 minutes, showing the jury an FBI surveillance photo of Andrews trailing Burke and the owners walking through the restaurant parking lot.
Andrews’ original plan, Blegen said, was to take the “billionaire” Burger King owners to the Polish Highlanders restaurant on South Archer Avenue after the walk-through, for “not just polish sausage, but free polish sausage for the guys who volunteer to run the neighborhood shred-a-thon.”
Blegen mocked the idea that the cargo-short-wearing, polish-sausage-eating Andrews was keyed in on some nefarious plan to shake down billionaires for legal business.
He also disparaged the government’s “smoking gun” that proved bad intentions, citing a recording in which Andrews told Burke the owners still were dragging on permits and that he would call them to “play hardball.”
Blegen said Andrews asked for the Burger King to shut down its remodeling work rather than demand. He also said the city driveway permits that the company had failed to procure were “a legitimate thing thing they needed.”
“This was not a wild goose chase,” Blegen said. “The Burger King needed driveway permits. It’s 100 percent true.”
In closing arguments for developer Charles Cui, attorney Tinos Diamantatos lashed out at the accusations that developer Charles Cui offered Burke legal business to lure the alderman into muscling through the pole sign permit.
“He is looking for legal assistance -- not offering a bribe,” Diamantatos said, pointing to repeated emails in which Cui asks for Burke’s representation.
“People all the time hire lawyers for who they are, their experience, their training, their prominence their connections,” Diamantatos said. “It doesn’t automatically mean you’re seeking that for illegal reasons when it involves a public official.”
Duffy on Thursday said prosecutors’ case amounted to little except “noise and confusion,” and said Burke was the victim of an overzealous prosecution.
The former alderman and powerhouse head of the influential Finance Committee is accused of repeatedly abusing his City Council clout in order to get business for his private law firm.
But his only misstep, Duffy said, was trusting his colleague ex-Ald. Daniel Solis, who was secretly wired up and cooperating with federal agents.
[ Ex-Ald. Ed Burke corruption trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury ]
Duffy noted with indignation that it was the defense side that put Solis on the witness stand, not prosecutors.
“The fact alone that they didn’t call Danny Solis in their case creates reasonable doubt,” Duffy said.
It’s an argument that’s been nearly five years in the making, ever since Solis, the former 25th Ward alderman and Zoning Committee chairman, was outed as the undercover federal cooperator who secretly recorded hundreds of phone calls and meetings that form the backbone of the racketeering charges against Burke.
His voice alternately raising to a shout and slipping into dripping sarcasm. Duffy branded Solis over and over as a liar and manipulator, who did everything he could to harass Burke, dangling the idea that the developers of the $600 million Old Post Office would hire Burke’s law firm if only he could help bring the project home.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, noted that Solis was never instructed to seek out Burke and start taping him.
“I want to emphasize to you that there was no expectation at the time Mr. Solis began his cooperation (in June 2016) that it would have anything to do with Mr. Burke,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said Thursday, continuing a marathon closing argument that began Wednesday afternoon
MacArthur said that while Solis did mislead Burke at times, it’s not what Solis says on the tapes that’s important, but “the words and actions of Mr. Burke.”
As Burke’s comments about Jewish lawyers and winking nods to the “cash register” that “has not rung yet” were played, Burke gazed downward toward the defense table and leaned back in his chair, occasionally rubbing his lips with a forefinger.
MacArthur also highlighted perhaps the most infamous comment of the trial, the moment Burke asked Solis in May 2017, “So did we land the, uh, the tuna?” when referencing the Post Office developers hiring his private law firm to do property tax work.
Afternoon Briefing
Weekdays
Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.
By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
>
“That’s a financial tuna he was referring to,” MacArthur said, noting Burke seemed unconcerned with issues the Post Office developers had been having with Amtrak, just his own potential windfall. “Mr. Burke, in his mind, is seeking to land a financial tuna for himself and his law firm.”
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, 73, is charged as part of the Burger King episode 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.
Real estate developer Charles Cui, 52, is facing counts stemming from the Binny’s pole sign chapter of federal program bribery, using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and making false statements to the FBI.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
rlong@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com