A federal jury on Friday heard wiretapped calls between then-Ald. Edward Burke and former mayoral candidate Gery Chico where the two longtime Democratic heavyweights talked about a 2017 fundraiser and a local builder apparently slow to get on the Burke bandwagon.
The calls were played by prosecutors in Burke’s corruption trial to underscore the then-powerful alderman’s alleged use of his official duties to try to squeeze private benefits for himself.
Advertisement
Former Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico during a news conference on Oct. 15, 2018, at City Hall. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)
On June 6, 2017, Chico, former chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley and onetime head of the Chicago Board of Education, called Burke to talk about the fundraiser to be held that night at RADA architects on North Michigan Avenue.
“Hey, Ed, how you doin’?” Chico asked at the outset of the call. Burke responded, “Good, Gery, welcome back to, uh, action.”
Advertisement
TODAY'S TOP VIDEOS
Chico told Burke that the fundraiser was going to be attended by Bulley & Andrews, a construction company that had worked on the newly built Mansueto High School in Burke’s 14th Ward.
Chico said Bulley & Andrews were “OK” but didn’t seem to quite get the fundraising game.
“Yeah, they’re OK. They’re not perfect,” Chico said. “They’re just pretty naive on this stuff, so we’ve had to drag their asses along the way, but we’ll have a nice event.”
Burke answered, “Well, maybe if they don’t have any access to the property because the driveway isn’t legal, they might get the message,” prompting Chico to laugh.
Listen to the audio:
[ Ex-Ald. Edward Burke corruption trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury ]
Burke’s comment came at the same time he was allegedly involved in a scheme to hold up a Burger King renovation on South Pulaski Road to pressure the owners to hire his private law firm.
The reason Burke and his ward assistant, Peter Andrews Jr., used to justify the Burger King shutdown was an outdated driveway permit, according to prosecutors.
The day after the fundraiser, Burke and Chico talked again.
“First of all, thank you for hosting,” Burke said on the call, which was also played in court.
“Happy to do it,” Chico responded.
“How did we do?” Burke asked.
Chico said he was “still collecting” but the fundraiser’s total appeared to be “in the 20s,” meaning at least $20,000.
“Let me keep trying to get the money. I got about five, six people still out,” Chico said.
Listen to the audio:
Chico is not accused of any wrongdoing. But the recordings had political irony, too, since it was the Burke investigation that later helped derail Chico’s 2019 mayoral run due to his long-standing ties to the alderman, which included Burke’s endorsement in the race.
Meanwhile, a political fundraiser Burke held at his home in January 2018 for another mayoral hopeful, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, became part of the charges against Burke and also helped tank her candidacy.
Chico later backed former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot, who beat Preckwinkle by a landslide in the May 2019 runoff.
Earlier Friday, testimony in Burke’s trial focused on allegedly misleading statements Burke’s longtime ward aide, Andrews, gave to federal investigators when they confronted him at his South Side home on Nov. 29, 2018, the same day the FBI raided Burke’s City Hall and ward offices.
Former FBI Special Agent Ted McNamara testified he and another agent, Andrew Hickey, knocked on Andrews’ door in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood at about 8 a.m. and requested about 10 minutes of his time. The agents were secretly carrying recording devices “about the size of a pack of cigarettes,” he said.
After Andrews let them into a breezeway, the agents showed him photographs of the Burger King owners, Shoukat and Zohaib Dhanani, but Andrews denied knowing who they were, according to a slightly muffled recording of the interview played in court Friday.
McNamara testified he believed Andrews knew who was in the photos. “He just looked at them quickly, didn’t ask to hold them up to his face or look at them several times,” McNamara said.
As the agents slowly gave hints about the Dhananis during the interview, including that they’re from “out of state” and own “a bunch of Burger Kings,” Andrews began “stuttering,” McNamara testified.
On the recording, Andrews could be heard saying haltingly, “They may have come into our office or something, maybe. I don’t know.”
“Do you think the alderman ever met with these guys?” Hickey asked on the recording.
Andrews, who had worked for years exclusively for Burke, replied: “Alderman who?”
“Alderman Burke,” Hickey said.
Andrews again said, “I don’t know. No, no idea.”
The jury has previously been shown evidence that agents that morning found an entire dossier on the Dhananis in Andrews’ 14th Ward office, including detailed information on dozens of their other business locations, emails and phone numbers for people involved with the Pulaski Road driveway permit and even an entire 17-page printout on the history of Burger King.
Near the end of their interview, McNamara and Hickey told Andrews that they were there as part of an official federal grand jury investigation and pressed him on why the Dhananis would have come to the ward office.
“Sir, I don’t know, I don’t know,” Andrews said. He then asked for their business cards and ended the interview.
In a combative cross-examination, Patrick Blegen, Andrews’ attorney, attacked McNamara’s claim that he could say Andrews actually did recognize the photos of the Dhananis.
“You think he recognized the photos,” Blegen said loudly. “Do you think you get to decide when he recognizes the photos or not? Are you a mind reader?”
“No. We were trying to get him to cooperate,” McNamara said.
“By reading his mind?” Blegen countered.
Noting that McNamara was highly trained in interviews, Blegen also contended the agent had confused Andrews right off the bat by telling him the business owners they were asking about had done some work “in the ward here,” not specifying that he meant the 14th Ward, rather than the 19th Ward where the interview was being conducted.
McNamara insisted Andrews was not confused.
“Do words mean something different to you?” Blegen asked.
“No,” McNamara said.
“Do you know what ‘here’ means?” Blegen shot back.
“Yes,” McNamara responded.
“Where are we right now?” Blegen said.
McNamara, an agent who worked on the high-profile “Family Secrets” mob case and many other famous investigations, said calmly that they were in the Dirksen federal building.
[ Ex-Ald. Ed Burke corruption trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury ]
Blegen further suggested McNamara used techniques meant to confuse their target during the brief interview with Andrews, such as “dribbling out information as you went along” in an effort to draw Andrews into giving false answers. McNamara disagreed.
Sitting at the defense table in a light gray suit, Burke appeared pleased as defense lawyers dissected McNamara’s answers, crossing his arms over his chest and slipping into a sustained grin.
The Burger King scheme is one of four main episodes outlined in the indictment. Burke is also accused of trying to extort legal business from the developers of the Old Post Office, intervening in a permit dispute over a liquor store pole sign after the developer, Charles Cui, hired his law firm, and threatening to hold up a fee increase for the Field Museum because officials there had failed to consider an internship application by his friend’s daughter.
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.
Andrews, 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.
Testimony shifted late Friday to the pole sign episode, with former Chicago Buildings Commissioner Judy Frydland testifying that Burke personally asked her in 2017 to intervene in Cui’s permit case asking to use an old pole sign for Binny’s Beverage Depot, which was anchoring his development miles from Burke’s ward.
Frydland delegated it to a subordinate, who, in a flurry of activity, found that Cui had submitted a doctored photo of the pole sign in an attempt to show it had been in “continuous use” when in fact it hadn’t been used since a bank vacated the property years earlier.
Jurors heard a wiretapped call from September 2017 where Burke’s assistant updated the alderman on the situation. “I guess the owner tried to Photoshop to show that (the sign) was in use but it doesn’t look right,” the assistant told him.
The jury also heard testimony from Tom Moore, a real estate attorney who emailed with Cui as the developer tried to get the city to approve use of the pole sign. Moore told Cui he thought “there is no way the pole sign can fly,” but offered to help try to navigate next steps.
When Cui told Moore about his plan to go to Burke for help, Moore said he tried to wave him off, since the project was not in Burke’s ward. “I thought it was a bad idea,” Moore testified.
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.
>
On cross examination, Burke attorney Chris Gair asked Moore, “The sum and substance of what (Burke) did was just to ask you to look into it?”
Moore confirmed that was it. He also agreed Burke never asked him to do anything wrong, pressured him or threatened him.
Cui’s attorney, Tinos Diamantatos, also pointed out in his questioning that Cui made no attempt to hide getting Burke involved in the issue, putting it all “in black and white in an email” to Moore.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
rlong@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
interactive_content
Originally Published: Dec 08, 2023 at 8:32 am