The racketeering case against ex-Ald. Ed Burke amounted to nothing but “noise and confusion,” Burke’s attorneys said in closing arguments Thursday, painting Burke as a devoted public servant persecuted by “desperate” federal agents.
“The government got up here and promised you a corruption case,” attorney Joseph Duffy said. “In three years, you know how much money went into his pocket? Nada. Zero.”
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Duffy also had choice words for FBI mole Daniel Solis, Burke’s former colleague on the City Council who secretly recorded meetings and phone calls with Burke for nearly two years. Duffy noted that prosecutors opted not to call Solis -- but the defense did.
“Why did we have to bring Danny Solis in here?” Duffy said. “That should give you pause. The fact that they ran an investigation on Mr. Burke for 30 months with a star witness Danny Solis undercover and they didn’t have the decency to bring him here.”
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In contrast to the calm and methodical closing arguments from prosecutors, Duffy was loud and energetic, his voice often rising to a shout. Burke, however, remained stoic — looking straight ahead, unsmiling, his hands folded in his lap.
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.
Duffy noted that Burke was alderman for more than five decades, and his law firm was meticulous about screening for conflicts of interest.
“Fifty years on the job, he knows how to cut through bureaucracy. And that’s why people come to him. Because he can cut the red tape, he can get it done,” Duffy said.
Tipping into sarcasm, Duffy noted that the corruption charges only involve the tail end of Burke’s time on the City Council: “All of a sudden I’m going to be corrupt, but I’m going to be corrupt in such a way that I don’t make any money?”
Burke’s firm, Klafter & Burke, operated only on contingency agreements, Duffy said, that is, they didn’t get paid until after they won property-tax appeals for a client.
“I’m going to appeal to your common sense,” he told jurors. “(Prosecutors) tell you he’s going to violate his oath of office, put himself at risk, do something he’s never done before and that’s commit a crime — without any guarantee that he’ll be paid for the crime.”
As for the secretly recorded conversations that form the backbone of the case against Burke, Duffy said, the alderman was merely blowing off steam.
“You’ve got to judge his actions. Look at what he did,” Duffy said. “He says a lot of things, but what does he really do?”
Duffy’s remarks came after marathon closing arguments from prosecutors, who walked jurors through the greatest hits from those tapes. .
Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said the FBI mole who made the recordings, 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,” MacArthur said.
It was Burke that first brought up his law firm, MacArthur said, playing a recording from August 2016 where Solis tells Burke he’s going to meet with the New York-based developers of the Old Post Office. “While you’re at it, recommend the good firm of Klafter & Burke,” Burke said on the call.
“This was from Mr. Burke and Mr. Burke alone, and he was the first person who named the firm,” MacArthur said. “Nothing was said to Mr. Solis to trigger that remark.”
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.
“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.”
MacArthur also played a clip from a video-recorded meeting where Burke told Solis he’s working “pro bono” for the Post Office owner, Harry Skydell, who Burke knew was of Jewish heritage.
“Jews are Jews and they’ll deal with Jews to the exclusion of everyone else unless there’s a reason for them to use a Christian,” Burke told Solis.
MacArthur said Burke’s comments about Jews show how he believed he had to overcome Skydell’s preferences. “(Burke) knows there is something he can do for Mr. Skydell, because of his power as an alderman, that other attorneys cannot do,” she said.
Burke’s efforts to obtain the Post Office business is the longest-running and arguably the most dramatic scheme in the indictment against Burke, which also alleges he abused his power in three other episodes. Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their initial closing arguments Thursday, at which point Burke’s attorneys will argue to the jury.
The defense has so far hinged on claims that Burke never offered to perform any official action in exchange for developers hiring his private law firm.
Burke’s legal team has also noted that for all of the allegations, Burke was never paid a dime in any of schemes he’s charged with. And they’ve had choice words for Solis, who they say was desperate to save his own skin and fed Burke a steady stream of FBI-scripted lies to get him to say something incriminating.
Solis was called to the stand Tuesday by Burke’s defense in an attempt to dirty him up and poke holes in his cooperation, but largely held his cool under intense questioning.
MacArthur noted that during Solis’ testimony, Burke’s defense apparently wanted to leave the impression that Solis was orchestrating everything Burke said.
“But the evidence is the other way around,” MacArthur said. “It was Mr. Burke who was fully in control of the progression, or lack thereof, in what was going on.”
She urged jurors to pay particular attention to the details of an October 2016 meeting, in which Burke spoke to the Post Office developers in Solis’ office.
Burke dropped the name of a powerful politician in New York and shifted to “what I can do for you” mode by bringing up his friendship with an Amtrak board member.
“It really is a masterclass in Mr. Burke using and exerting his power. This meeting is taking place in City Hall, not at Klafter & Burke. In City Hall,” MacArthur said. “This is the use of the trappings of government to try and convince someone to become a client of his law firm.”
[ Ex-Ald. Ed Burke corruption trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury ]
The racketeering charges allege Burke used his significant City Hall power to try to get business for his private law firm from developers of the Old Post Office, owners of a Burger King in his Southwest Side 14th Ward and a developer desperate to install a sign for a Binny’s Beverage Depot in Portage Park.
He is also accused of threatening to block an admission fee increase at the Field Museum to retaliate against officials who failed to give a paid internship to a daughter of one of his longtime City Council allies.
MacArthur on Thursday urged jurors to use their common sense in considering the Portage Park pole sign matter, noting that the sign was nowhere near Burke’s Southwest Side ward. The developer, co-defendant Charles Cui, is accused of hiring Burke’s law firm in an attempt to get him to pull strings at City Hall.
“Mr. Cui wanted Mr. Burke involved for the power and clout that Mr. Burke could bring to try and resolve this pole sign issue,” MacArthur said.
Burke, in turn, is accused of using his public power on Cui’s behalf because Cui hired the firm.
“There is no reason, other than the fact that Mr. Burke is acting on behalf of a client, for him to have any interest whatsoever in this pole sign,” MacArthur said. “… the reason he (intervened) was in response to Mr. Cui’s retention of Mr. Burke’s firm.”
In her closing argument Wednesday, MacArthur spent three hours painting an excruciatingly detailed and unflattering portrait of Burke, the fallen power broker who for decades stood at the pinnacle of the old Chicago Democratic political machine.
Despite the polished veneer he presented to the public, Burke was corrupt to the core, MacArthur said, petty, fiercely protective of his own power, and constantly looking for a chance to line his own pockets.
“Mr. Burke’s hand was out again and again, demanding money and benefits from the very people he was supposed to act on behalf of,” MacArthur told jurors. “Ed Burke was a powerful and corrupt politician and this was his racket.”
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Closings are expected to be lengthy, with MacArthur’s initial argument expected to last about five hours in total, followed by a full day’s worth of defense remarks and then jury instructions.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall has said she is hopeful jurors will get the case by the end of the week.
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 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
Originally Published: Dec 14, 2023 at 7:22 am