Closing arguments slated to begin in corruption trial of ex-Ald. Ed Burke

Closing arguments are slated to begin Wednesday afternoon in the landmark racketeering trial of ex-Ald. Edward Burke, capping off a hot-button case that laid bare the inner workings of “old-school” Chicago politics.

Closings are expected to be lengthy, with prosecutors’ initial argument lasting about five hours. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall has said she is hopeful jurors will be deliberating by the end of the week.

Federal prosecutors put on three dozen witnesses to elaborate on four separate instances of alleged corruption. But the most hotly anticipated witness came from Burke’s defense, who called ex-Ald. Daniel Solis to the stand on Tuesday.

Solis, who turned FBI mole in 2016 and cooperated extensively against Burke and others, secretly recorded dozens of conversations with Burke that were played for the jury.

The recordings have Burke saying lines that have surely stuck in jurors’ minds: He was “not motivated” to help the developers, he said, since “the cash register has not rung yet.” When the developers dragged their feet, he told Solis “as far as I’m concerned they can go (expletive) themselves.” And perhaps most memorably, he asked Solis on a wiretapped call: “So did we land the, uh, the tuna?”

But in questioning Solis on Tuesday, Burke attorney Chris Gair steered clear of those lines, instead using Solis’ time on the stand to reiterate the more flattering parts of the recordings: the parts where Burke is careful about conflicts of interest and says he’ll do what Solis wants regardless of whether he gets business.

In a high-stakes roll of the dice, Burke’s legal team put Solis on the witness stand in an attempt to dirty him up, poke holes in his cooperation, and suggest that Solis enticed Burke and fed him FBI-scripted lies to try to get Burke to say incriminating things on tape.

Gair also took the opportunity to slam Solis’ unprecedented deferred prosecution deal with the feds, asking in one memorable exchange near the outset of the testimony, “Now sir, your reason for agreeing to cooperate with the government was to save yourself, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Solis said.

The racketeering case alleges that 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 on the Northwest Side.

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.

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 Jr., 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.

Real estate developer Charles Cui, 52, is facing counts of federal program bribery, using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and making false statements to the FBI.

____