Daywatch: Burke used his power ‘to punish,’ prosecutors say in closing arguments
Good morning, Chicago.
Ed Burke, for years the most powerful alderman in Chicago, resident historian of the City Council, anointer of judges and head of the influential Finance Committee, sat back in his chair in a federal courtroom Wednesday as closing arguments in his landmark corruption trial got underway.
Across the room, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur made a sweeping gesture toward Burke, telling jurors they’d heard a “steady drumbeat of unlawful activity” over the past several weeks. And at the center of it, she said, “is this man.”
Burke, dressed in a dark gray suit, green tie and his trademark ivory pocket square, remained expressionless.
That dramatic beginning was followed by more than three hours of MacArthur painting an excruciatingly detailed and unflattering portrait of Burke, the fallen 14th Ward 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.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Jason Meisner, Megan Crepeau and Ray Long.
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