Lawyers for ex-Alderman Edward Burke confirm they will call alderman turned government mole Daniel Solis as a defense witness

CHICAGO — After a month of legal jockeying, lawyers for former Chicago Ald. Edward Burke confirmed in court Monday they will call alderman turned government mole Daniel Solis as a defense witness at Burke’s upcoming racketeering trial.

The announcement by Burke’s high-powered defense team comes a month after prosecutors left Solis off their witness list, saying they planned to introduce dozens of undercover audio and video recording Solis made in the bombshell investigation through other witnesses.

Prosecutors had asked that Burke’s attorneys be barred from calling Solis simply to try and impeach his credibility and question the unprecedented deal he got from the U.S. attorney’s office.

But at a pretrial conference in the case Monday, Burke attorney Chris Gair told U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall he can “assure the government we’re not calling Solis just to impeach him.”

“We’re calling him for substantive reasons, to illuminate the facts of the case,” Gair said. “Anybody can impeach a witness who is called for proper reasons.”

Whether Solis, one of the most famous government moles in Chicago political history, will take the stand has been a central part of the legal maneuvering ahead of Burke’s trial, which is set to begin Nov. 6 at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

Prosecutors initially had left one caveat, saying they could potentially call Solis if Burke’s lawyers tried to present an entrapment defense.

While defense attorneys ruled out that prospect at the outset of Monday’s hearing, they instead made good on promises to call Solis as their own witness and put his deal “squarely on the table.”

In exchange for his cooperation, Solis was granted a rare deferred prosecution deal that will see corruption charges against him dismissed in three years, leaving him with a clean criminal record and allowing him to keep his nearly $100,000-a-year city pension.

“The jury cannot be presented the tape recordings Solis made without an understanding of who he is and why he cooperated,” Burke’s lawyers wrote in a court filing over the weekend. “To do so would be both confounding and misleading to the jury.”

The prospect of Solis hitting the witness stand adds a decidedly more dramatic flavor to the trial, which is expected to last about six weeks.

The fight over Solis’ testimony could have reverberations in another high-profile public corruption case — the prosecution of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who scheduled to go on trial on April 1. Solis also made secret recordings of Madigan that helped lead to his indictment.

Burke, 79, was originally charged in a criminal complaint in January 2019. He was indicted four months later on 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity. Also charged are Burke’s longtime ward assistant, Peter Andrews, and developer Charles Cui.

The 59-page indictment outlined a series of schemes in which Burke allegedly tried to muscle developers into hiring his law firm, Klafter & Burke, to appeal their property taxes. Among the projects Burke tried to capitalize on was the massive $800 million renovation of the Old Post Office in the West Loop, according to the charges. Solis recorded numerous conversations with Burke about that deal, records show.

Also charged was Burke’s longtime aide, Peter Andrews, who was accused of assisting the alderman in attempting to shake down two business owners seeking to renovate a Burger King restaurant in the 14th Ward.

Solis’ legal saga began in 2016 when he secretly agreed to wear a wire for the FBI and helped build racketeering cases against Burke and Madigan, two of the longest-serving and most powerful politicians in the state.

A bombshell court filing made public in 2019 showed the FBI spent more than two years investigating Solis before he was confronted and flipped, secretly listening in on thousands of phone calls as the alderman solicited everything from campaign donations to sexual services at a massage parlor.

In exchange for official action or promises, Solis solicited a “steady flow of personal benefits,” including Viagra pills and prostitution services from a political operative who represented a company seeking an exemption from the city’s water ordinance, the FBI search warrant affidavit alleged.

The deferred prosecution deal was signed by Solis on the day after Christmas 2018 and kept secret for nearly 3 ½ years before the U.S. attorney’s office finally put it on the record last year.

As part of the deal, Solis was charged in a one-count criminal information with corruptly soliciting campaign donations from a real estate developer in exchange for zoning changes in 2015, when Solis was head of the City Council’s zoning committee. That charge will be dropped in three years if Solis continues to cooperate.

Last year, the federal prosecutor leading the Burke and Madigan investigations delivered an impassioned defense of the deal with Solis, telling the federal judge overseeing the high-profile case that Solis’ cooperation was perhaps “singular” even in the city’s long history of political corruption.

During the course of his undercover work, Solis personally made “hundreds of recordings” and helped form the basis of government requests for wiretaps on others, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said.

“Some may view (Solis’ deal) as being with little precedent, but what Mr. Solis did also was with little precedent,” Bhachu said. “He didn’t just talk. He took action. He worked with the federal government for six years to expose corruption.”

When Solis was confronted by investigators back in 2016, Bhachu said, he “had a choice” about what his path would be, including to refuse to cooperate, deny accountability, and fight any charges that came his way.

“That is an easy path that many in this city and state have followed,” Bhachu said. “Mr. Solis chose a more difficult path, judge. He cooperated with the government for approximately six years. When we asked him to meet, he did so. When he was asked to make a recording with a third party, he did it.”

“A lot of people talk about cleaning up corruption, and often all it amounts to is talk,” Bhachu said. “It’s rare when someone actually delivers, and in this regard, Mr. Solis delivered.”

Bhachu also said Solis has suffered for his corruption, even if it won’t include a felony conviction. He lost his seat in the City Council, he can’t run for public office again, and he’s been ostracized by former colleagues, according to the prosecutor.

“Life is never going to be the same for him again,” Bhachu said. “These are all real consequences.”

Solis has been free on bond since he was charged in 2022.

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