SPECIAL REPORT: Jury reaches verdict in corruption trial of former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke

private tax law firm now Burke is charged with a total of 14 counts that includes one count of racketeering two counts of federal program bribery two counts of attempted extortion one count of conspiracy to commit extortion and eight counts of using Interstate Commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity all right we have Sarah schy who is standing by live at the courthouse and Sarah has been in the courtroom since day one of this trial covering this case for day by day uh Sarah let's go through this right now the jury was very quiet yesterday and then this afternoon we get word that there is a verdict that's right no questions no notes to the jury all day yesterday no questions no notes to the jury all day today obviously a very diligent jury they have been deliberating we'd say about 23 hours which really is not that long compared to some other political corruption trials for example George Ryan former Governor George Ry ran was 10 days former Governor Rob bich was 14 days on his first trial 10 on his second so actually not not that old but you know these jurors were up against kind of a false deadline called Christmas the the judge judge Virginia Kendall did tell them if they could not come up with The Verdict by tomorrow that they would give her them Christmas off and then come back the following week obviously not that the case they have now come up with a verdict what we do know is that Ed Burke and his wife an and their children are now in the courtroom so is co-defendant Pete Andrews he is a former 14th W Aid to edberg he is also in the courtroom we believe that they are still waiting for Charles Quay he is the developer Charles Quay the third c-end in this case we do know that his attorney said that at the beginning of the week that his office is about 15 minutes away so he said try to give him 15 minutes to to get here to the courthouse now Ed Burke and his wife an have been local they've been hanging out across the street at the Union League club which is they are members there which is kind of interesting because the Union League club was a part of this case and part of the Burger King portion of this case where Ed Burke is accused of trying to shake down the owner of a Burger King um and and actually talked about his um his Law Firm at the Union League club uh again this was a very long case with a prosecution that began almost 5 years ago Ed Burke was Chicago's longest serving Alderman and for decades the most powerful as chair of the city's finance committee sworn into office in 1969 Burke would go on to represent Chicago's 14th Ward for more than a half century until earlier this year his Reign on the southwest side ending after he decided not to seek reelection but the investigation into his Alle wrongdoing had already been underway for years at that point in November of 2018 the FBI raided Burke's 14th W office reportedly taking boxes and computers they executed a second search warrant at his office in City Hall where butcher paper lined the doors and windows while agents spent hours inside Burke appeared unflappable I have always cooperated in investigations I will fully cooperate in this one and I'm confident that there'll be nothing found to be a Miss in January of 2019 a federal complaint was on sealed accusing Burke of attempted extortion by illegally trying to steer business to his Law Firm which handles property tax assessments he again was confident in his response and vowed to fight the charges I haven't done anything wrong and I'm looking forward to uh my day in court then that may came round two of federal charges a sweeping 14c count indictment was handed up against Burke charging him with racketeering Federal program bribery attempted extortion conspiracy to commit extortion and using Interstate Commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity prosecutors linking him to multiple criminal schemes in which he allegedly used his massive influence in public position to solicit and extort work for his Law Firm two of those schemes involved a Burger King and his ward in the development of the Old Post Office Burke was also accused of threatening to hold up a fee increase at the Field museum because they ignored an internship application from a family friend after several covid related delays his corruption trial finally began in November and much of the evidence used against Burke were his own words from wiretap calls to face-to-face meetings that were secretly recorded some of those conversations involved former 25th W Alderman Danny siss who turned on his old friend an ally in city council by becoming a government mole Burke pleaded not guilty to all charges in a fall from grace that has transformed this once powerful politician to potential prisoner and we are just told that judge Virginia C has now entered the courtroom which means that Charles Quay that third codefendant is now in the courtroom she said that once all parties are there they're going to go ahead and read the verdict again this was a very complicated case for the jury 19 counts 14 against Burke so those 14 accounts include racketeering which according to Legal experts really is a pretty difficult um type of charge to sort out if you are a juror they have to have they have to have two um acts that they have to prove they're trying to prove under racketeering that there was a pattern there so that was probably the biggest challenge for jurors but again 23 hours they have now come up with a verdict Mark Judy back to you guys Sarah we just want to mention that Sarah schy is standing by for us in in the lobby area we do have a team right there in the courtroom as soon as we get the verdict from the jury we will bring that to you right away but as we await that uh Sarah talk a little bit about the jury instructions uh you mentioned that this is a very complex case even the the jury verdict form that we have been able to preview is somewhat complicated and there were hundreds of pages to the jury in in terms of instructions that's right there are over 300 50 pages of jury instructions it took judge Virginia Kendall over four hours to read it to the jury so that is a lot a lot to go through matter of fact when there were questions I think they had actually two questions one request on Monday and one of the answers that the judge said was they're in your instructions go back and read them with 350 uh pages of jury instructions obviously whatever questions they had something was definitely in there so that was a lot for them to decipher going through those instructions trying to figure out with the evidence how it all applies to the law big tall order for those uh nine women and three men from by the way the makeup of the jury most of them are from suburban Chicago this remember this is the northern district of Illinois so it pulls from about probably over 20 counties all over nor the Northern Illinois some one of the jurors I think is as far from as far as Montgomery so you know these jurors we these were diligent jurors they um the the judge would talk about it compliment them daily how all of them were here here early taking notes really paying attention to six weeks of the testimony obviously it is a lot to take in more than 38 Witnesses 16 days of trial and of course we're going to check in Sarah with our chuck gouty chuck we just heard that the jury is now in the courtroom as well Mark and Charles Quay is actually not in the courtroom the late word from the courtroom is that he was feeling ill and in fact the judge has now waved his physical appearance with his agreement and he is appearing by a video feed from wherever he is for the reading of these verdicts 23 hours of deliberation may seem like a long time for some of us but in the context of Federal Criminal racketeering trials like this the rule of thumb is that a jury is likely to deliberate one day for every week of testimony well that would be six days of deliberation and we're nowhere near that that generally is thought to be bad news for the defendant a jury that is manages to reach verdicts relatively quickly 23 hours in this case maybe half or less than half of the time that would be typical in a case like this but we'll find out soon enough as this is unfolding in federal court right now at the durksen building 219 South Dearborn where where so many Chicago politicians have stood before judges stood before the bench to hear mostly guilty verdicts announced after their long trials and many of them have ended up in prison over the years uh nearly three dozen Chicago Alderman have gone to federal prison for similar kinds of cases brought against them as Mr Burke is now finding himself standing in the court of law to answer for these charges and to hear what this jury has determined and Chucky certainly have been covering this uh the city for a long time and unfortunately some very major corruption cases here in the city and the state give us a little bit of context as we await the verdict right now how major this is for the city of Chicago for city council Ed Burke has been a power broker in the city for a long time here well along with that Judy and Mark Ed Burke has also had a very large Target on his back back Federal authorities have kind of danced around this big Power broker of a figure in Chicago Ed Burke for many many years you probably could go back decades if you opened up the FBI files on Burke to determine that they have been looking at his behavior his actions his associates and it really the the changing event in all this was that they got an undercover individual who Burke seemed to trust who wore a wire wore a hidden camera and recorded many many hours of Ed Burke doing business as usual according to what prosecutors said and that was acting corruptly yeah let's talk a little bit about former Chicago Alderman Danny ciss he I believe the FBI has talked about him as being one of the most prolific cooperating Witnesses they've they've seen in years uh what was he able to provide in this case Chuck well the main thing Mark he was able to provide is a body with access to Burke in the confines of his private office uh nobody else was able to do that the FBI over the years may have wanted to bug Burke's office or put hidden cameras inside there but they apparently didn't do it but a trusted individual like Danny siss who managed to have Burke's attention in the privacy of his office while he was wired Burke apparently not realizing that was the case uh that was the difference okay thank thank you very much chuck let's head back out to Sarah schy at the courthouse right now with some of the verdicts just coming in okay uh Mark what we're hearing is that Charles Quay who we just said is the third co-defendant who is not present in the courthouse on count 12 the indictment finds Quay guilty count 13 of the indictment finds Quay guilty as to count 13 unlawful activity on bri bribery commercial bribery count 14 guilty as in count 14 unlawful bribery activity of commercial bribery count 15 guilty and count 17 guilty I do believe this all has to do um with Charles Quay again he is not in the courtroom his involvement in this case only has to do with one of the four schemes it has to do with the poll sign and the bennies um and what we do know is I know he's not in the courtroom because he's feeling ill two of his attorne actually had covid at the beginning of this week they did come in here masked um so that is so far what we have with um Charles Quay who appears to and now we got another one Pete Andrews he is the former Aid to uh uh Ed Burke he is found guilty on count 567 found not guilty on 5678 and 10 completely not guilty again he was an aid to um Ed Burke uh in his former 14 14th Ward office his involvement in this case all had to do with the Burger King scheme um and so that is what we have so far again Charles Quay the developer the codefendant not guilty and I mean guilty and Peter Andrews not guilty back to you guys we're now just waiting for Ed Burke okay we are waiting through by by Def codefendants here first for okay yeah okay so just to just to uh okay we just got in uh information on Ed Burke as well uh let's see here we have uh okay Ed Burke guilty on one count racketeering acts agreed on post office act 1 a b 1 c 1 D let's head back out to uh Sarah Shelty for a look at uh at those guilty verdicts for Ed Burke Sarah right and and you know this is a big one reran is a big one it it is uh it it um in terms of sentencing um it it takes up the most amount of prison time this is a big one um and this will probably have a lot to do with some of the other verdicts whether it's bribery extortion that are coming through but he is guilty on reran and as I mentioned before they have to find that he was guilty on two acts of this and they did found him uh guilty on the post office two acts of the post office and an act in the Burger King as well so this is a big one for Ed Brook right here and he is found guilty of racketeering on count one of racketeering we're waiting for the other counts again 14 counts against Ed Burke so much more to learn here obviously but a huge verdict coming out there against Ed Burke so um just to recap for you a little bit of what's Happening Here so these verdicts are being read upstairs in the courtroom right now where we have a team that's relaying all this information to Sarah shy who's standing by right there but as you heard right there the big count here the big charge for the feds in this case is that count one which is racketeering and in order to find him guilty chers would have to agree unanimous unanimously on two separate racketeering acts that they were committed apparently they did in this case you're looking at our Graphics right now our team producing this for you uh as we speak so that is um the big verdict this afternoon yes we and we are getting more information about uh what's going on inside the courtroom as well our Craig is there uh talking about basically what what burk's demeanor is uh after looking at all of this and uh we are going to take a look at that in just a moment Burke count too guilty uh he has his chin on his folded hands his gold watch glinting in the courtroom light he's staring toward the front of the courtroom family has their heads hung behind him all right we just got word on count two this again is against Ed Burke guilty corruptly soliciting and demanding things of value count three also guilty using the use of an Internet facility in this case that's a legal term for email accounts and cell phones and Interstate facility to Aid unlawful activity again these verdicts just coming in one count at a time okay four about count four he is guilty on count four use of an interstate facility to Aid unlawful activity count five also guilty of attempted extortion he is not guilty on count six extortion conspiracy related to the Burger King project and count 7even he is guilty use of an interstate facility to Aid unlawful activity that is in relation to the Burger King project um we are okay count 8 he is also guilty also guilty and this is uh applying to both Burke and Peter Andrews his codefendant in this case and it does relate to the alleged Burger King racketeering act scheme in this case count n guilty use of an interstate facility to Aid unlawful activity this count applies to Burke and his use of his personal AOL email account in relations to the Burger King act okay uh Burke is guilty on count 11 uh which is the corruptly accepting and agreeing to accept things of value related to the poll sign permit that's uh in relation to also things that Charles Quay was charged with and count 15 he's guilty use of an interstate facility to Aid unlawful activity again this is this is um I don't know lawyers speak for using uh outside of government uh email addresses to conduct government business or to steer business uh count 16 he is guilty Ed Burke use of an interstate facility to Aid unlawful activity this is is tied to uh mobile phone usage in relation to the pole sign permit as well and count 18 guilty attempted extortion this is related to The Field Museum and blocking a fee raise uh and uh there's more on that of course in account 19 he is guilty use of an interstate facility uh to Aid unlawful activity that's tied to uh mobile phone usage also related to the count uh to the charges levied against him about blocking a field museum fee increase very interesting as we uh our team our entire team here is trying to dissect and go through uh these counts you're watching this as we were getting that verdict uh relay to us from the courtroom uh the verdict form is is pretty long we have an expert here sitting on the set we will get to him in just a minute but even what the jurors have to go through in terms of handing back and handing down this verdict is somewhat complex so as you heard as we're trying to to go through their various counts some are related directly only to Ed Burke which who is the former Chicago Alderman in this case but there were also two codefendants in this case uh along with him so some of the counts were against them um so we're going to try to go through all of this for you let take a look at this and uh head actually back out to Sarah Shelty who is at the courthouse right now with more that's right as we as I could could add this up correctly Ed Burke was only found not guilty on one of those counts he was originally charged with all right for some reason we lost uh Sarah's picture you saw chg gouty who was standing by of course also uh bringing us some analysis on this I think Sarah was in the process of saying that by her account so correct us if we're wrong uh in in the booth here that Ed Burke in this case only found not guilty on one count out of the 14 that he was facing is that correct I believe that is right and that's what Sarah was saying in the fields so we'll of course we'll check in with her in just a minute but we do want to bring in uh okay we're back out to Sarah Sarah okay is that correct Burke was found not guilty on just a single count of the 14 a single count out of the 14 again pretty stunning for a man that held such an incredible amount of power in this city for over over 50 years again this was a prosecution that began 5 years ago and it all kind of began because of the former Alderman turn government mold Danny siss and the one thing the prosecutors made very clear in this case is that when they put that wire on Danel Solis the purpose was not to go after Ed Burke it was to go after somebody else and during the process they were hearing the conversations between siss and Burke specifically talking about the post office where Ed Burke on his own told asked sise to maybe hey when you're talking to the developer of the old PA office tell them about clor and Burke his private uh tax law firm um so really the prosecutor say it was really Ed Burke that it was his own words that opened up the investigation into him there's have been investigations in Ed Burke in the past but nothing that has come to this close and really it was because of the government government tool that they had and this government tool was the recordings thanks to Danny soes and one thing I also wanted to one thing that too just kind of add that the end of Joe Duffy Joe Duffy is Ed Burke's attorney at the very end of his closing argument he said to the jury Ed Burke please send Ed Burke home he is going to be 80 years old on December 29th of course that was objected to and sustained by the judge but clearly his age his birthday coming up the holidays coming up obviously had absolutely no impact on the jury's decision here is they have found Ed Burke guilty of 13 of those 14 counts Mark and Judy back to you yeah we are waiting their reaction as well here this afternoon want to bring in our legal expert who's sitting here on the set joining us this afternoon Chris aing a former prosecutor uh you sat down literally as we were going through through the verdict um you you heard what we reported just one count not guilty the rest of them guilty against Ed Burke your reaction right now well from the government's perspective about as close to a clean sweep um as you can possibly get uh they've been spending a lot of time uh investigating this case uh trying this case uh and now uh having the the opportunity to come back and hear the jury return guilty verdicts as to virtually every count um and and probably most significantly the top count the rering count um that is the count that really subsumes all of the conduct that's that was at play in this case and to get a guilty verdict on that particular count has to be particularly satisfying for the government and when you think about how difficult it is to actually get a guilty ver verdict on racketeering because it is a complex issue to for a jury to sift through to find that it is it's a it's a complicated charge um but it's a powerful charge from the government as we've heard during the course of this case able to bring in a number of disperate Acts bring them all together um and present them to the jury to essentially say to them this is this is the course of the of the corrupt conduct that alderin Burke um engaged in um you know because of its power it's also complex and as you just talked about the instructions are complex uh it took the judge Kendall a long time to get through them but the jury was able to digest it digest the evidence Marshal it and come back with a guilty Verdi quickly are you surprised at at how quickly this verdict came in uh I thought it would be this week um whether or not it was going to be today or tomorrow um but I think it's pretty reasonable given the given the amount of evidence and then the time of theid okay well let's let's head out to a political analyst Laura Washington who's also standing by Laura I mean this is this is massive news against such a historic Chicago Alderman what kind of Ripple effects in reaction do you think this is going to face in city council well you're right Mark this this this Alderman Alderman Burke is probably the most powerful certainly the longest serving Alderman in the history of Chicago he had a tremendous amount of power and to be BR down in such a sweeping convictions conviction I think sends a an unforgettable message to the rest of the Chicago city council as it stands now uh we've had many convictions coming out of Chicago city council but never won of by someone who is so powerful and who has so much influence this is going to be something the re reverberations of this conviction are going to be heard for a long time to come and I would say to the to the members of the city city members of the Chicago city council you'd want to watch your backs because he was convicted convicted largely with the help of former Alman Danny CIS as we you've discussed before and the tapes and the other materials that he was able to gather for the federal government that was a colleague of his and so if you're out there and you're thinking about some wrongdoing you want to watch your back with your other colleagues and and Laura on that note take us back just a little bit I mean how seismic was it when we finally all learned that uh the the government mle so to speak was uh Alderman solise uh and making these recordings how major was that announcement well you knew it was Major because sois and Burke R were were close colleagues they were friends they were allies so if if if there was a someone in his position who was able to get that close to Ed Burke and Ed Burke had always been seen as Untouchable because he was so so powerful and because he was you know pretty careful so the fact that that had been going on for some time made made you know that there was something really powerful going on here the another moment that really struck with me was when the feds raided Ed Burke's office at City Hall again he's the head of the finance committee had been for many years they go into his office they they they put brown paper over the glass uh walls of his office and they get their goods and so that that that was another message that even the most powerful can be brought down yeah I mean and and that is the message going forward and I think it is a cautionary tale again as you mentioned to anyone trying to or thinking of of uh doing wrongdoing as a sitting member of government so uh Laura thank you very much and uh let's um let's also talk to our legal contributor Tony Thedford who is also standing by Tony uh what was your reaction to this uh this conviction in the courtroom in such a a almost a sweep in the charges against Ed Burke well uh thanks for having me I am not surprised of the sweep uh the racketeering charge was the main charge and essentially the other charges essentially fall as kind of fruit of that tree uh so I'm not surprised by the Clean Sweep I am surprised about the speed of the verdict though um I think uh I think someone mentioned earlier that it's typical to have one deliberation per week of trial since this was a six week trial my estimate was that they would come back after the holiday uh with the judge having already given scheduling as to how that would be handled if they had not reached a verdict by tomorrow so I am surprised about the speed but I do believe that the speed was probably necessitated or or by the recordings and when that those jurors heard the words coming out of alderman Burke's mouth uh it must not have taken long to debate whether or not the meaning of those words and how they related obviously to the charges so in hindsight it makes sense that they would come back as quickly as they did but it was my anticipation that it would take longer because typically these cases do take a while in deliberations racketeering charges are difficult to prove um but clearly the government did it here and they largely relied again on these recordings in order to do so Antonia I want to ask you a question question on the defense side anything stand out to you anything surpris you struck you um in the defense strategy in this case I think the calling of alderman Alise is the I guess would be the most controversial sort of approach to the defense uh it certainly is not uh shocking but at the same time that was the difficult kind of the All or Nothing sort of presentation by the defense if they were able to make some Headway with Alder solise there was a great possibility that these racketeering charges would fall um so I I see the necessity from the defense standpoint but that was really the core piece of the evidence here in addition of course to the recordings it's always chilling when you actually hear the words of an accused when that person has not testified at their own trial which is of course his right uh to exercise and so anticipating that he would not testify his trial uh government had the advantage of playing his words and it almost acted as if uh in some people's mind as an admission um of the allegations against him obviously you know I mean that this is exactly what you're saying I mean I I think that's that is so powerful when you are able to hear him and he's not testifying in the trial itself how how important do you think it was for the recorded testimony or the recorded evidence rather that was that was on camera as well to actually see him saying those words not just on a tape either well in a criminal case uh proof has to be Beyond A Reasonable Doubt so you know the closer you get to actually seeing the man say the words the closer you are to proving the case Beyond A Reasonable Doubt so there is audio in many cases we only have audio well maybe we can create some doubt based on the audio who may who may have said it well that issue is resolved when you have the physical manifestation of this the declarant of the statement making those statements so it really clear CS up the who done it relative to the statement and once you get past that piece it's ascribing meaning to the words that came out of the mouths of those people that are recorded and it's up to the jury using their own abilities they don't have to be lawyers to do this using their own abilities to decide what those words meant and they've obviously decided that those words meant that he was guilty of these charges of these 13 charges that were uh uh that he's found guilty of yeah and speaking of the recordings a lot of recordings we were talking about close to a 100 recordings in this case that the jury uh had to go through Tony stand by with us we will come back to you of course right now we want to go back out to the federal courthouse Sarah schy standing by who has been watching and covering this case from the very beginning I know our political reporter Craig wall is there as well Sarah anything new from your end well Judy uh Burke's trial team we are expecting to come down at any time right now before Burke left the court room though he was told by the judge to return to court on June 19th for a posttrial hearing now my colleague political reporter Craig wall was in the courtroom when the verdicts were being read Craig tell us a little bit about you know work's demeanor and and how his family reacted yeah I was watching him closely as he was sitting waiting for the verdict to come in he was staring forward towards the judge with sort of a blank look on his face you can tell he was very much steep in thought when the verdict came down no expression no reaction but his hands were kind of on his fist like this sitting there sort of just listening and watching uh after the jurors were all pulled his wife an came up behind him put his arm around his back and leaned over he kissed her on the cheek and then she sat back down his attorney would later come over and give him a hug and they exchanged some words couldn't tell what they said um but no visible reaction from Burke but he's been very stoic so much anyways that doesn't really surprise me well it's interesting he's been sto but he's also been paid very close attention to every piece of evidence that was entered into this trial and even during closing arguments was probably the most animated I saw him um specifically I think it was maybe Pat Blan who represents Pete Andrews Pete Andrews who's the one that was found not guilty uh Ban's closing argu argument was very um had a lot of humor in it pretty animated and that is one time when we did see Burke laugh um um so he was certainly paid a lot of attention something we also have to keep in mind here is when you just mentioned Anne Burke who of course versus the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois um and and really uh you know has had her own storied career as well um he was here every single day with Burke right behind him in court right behind him in court um you know kind of involved too if if there was something you know there was a question from the jury that came in the other day she kind of leaned over with the attorneys kind of to take a look at it obviously she's you know very well versed in the law so not a surprise the other thing too is he had his his four children and you know pretty much every day one if not more of those children were there both both of his daughters were in court today we believe that the son-in-laws are there and what it appeared to be one grandson who was also in there when the verdicts came down their heads were just hanging down I saw some head shaking and and disappointment and perhaps disbelief um you know obviously they're minding their defense they did not believe he was guilty and the jury except for that one count sent a resounding message to political corruption in Chicago that this is not going to be tolerated they saw through it they didn't believe the defense obviously um and you know this should be a message although we know from other cases like bovich when the judges have said we hope this sends a message about political corruption so it makes you wonder whether this is really going to send a message to anyone else or just Ed Burke right you know it's always the whole message thing but I think the person right now who's probably really probably shaking in his boots is Michael Madigan and we know that that trial is set to be I guess except for the beginning of April it's not delayed but you know it's there's very a lot of similarities in terms of using his public position for private gain um so that is and and also Danny ciss is involved in that trial as well they also there's plenty of recordings between Michael Madam Madigan and Danny s and and and to your point I mean if this is the kind of case that they were able to bring against Ed Burke who was you know rather private man we think Madigan may have been even more private and more careful with these things but to your point we've got somebody like Michael Madigan who's got to be looking at this saying okay wow they must have you know they've seen the discovery but going into trial this is going to put those attorneys for Michael Madigan on notice government's not coming against somebody like that without a significant serious case and you hear that from federal prosecutors when you talk to them on a regular basis the federal government does not generally bring a case if they don't have a very good one um now they lost against Pete Andrews so that's you know an interesting aspect of this but but he was a much more minor player in right he was a minor player and he was only involved in in one of the schemes um and you know Pete Andrews it's kind of interesting um he was labeled throughout this trial during the openings they just kind of called him they really trying to downplay his involvement with Burke they called him good strategy right they did and they called him lunch paale Pete um they made it kind of a big deal about the fact that he casually dress dresses which he did during the trial probably on purpose Christmas hats into the courtroom you know right I mean you know he always came in with a sweater every day but I I think they you know I think his attorneys um successfully kind of um kind of sold him as kind of a minor player in this dist him enough him enough from Burke um and and and his attorney Pat lean and from you know and I'm editorializing here but of all the closing arguments that I heard in that trial he gave the best one and the strongest one so obviously and the jury apparently agrees with your assess right I mean you know this is this is all about doubt planting a seat of doubt and um and clearly he must have planted a a seat of doubt in there when they went ahead and and and U and and went through those counts so I will say before court started I went up and asked Chris G and Joe Duffy to Ed bur's attorneys if they were going to be coming down and talking and they said it was a decision they would have to make after Consulting with their client so we'll have to see whether Ed Burke wants them to say anything at all uh we're we heard he was coming down but it's quite possible they went down to another floor where they have been waiting and hanging out during the trial I assume they have other things there to gather and pull together so they're probably discussing what if anything they want to say how they want to play it um you know it it it'd be a tough call to come out and say something after your T your client loses on all counts yeah it's very easy to say you might talk before but then you know afterwards it's a it's a different story but you know it it would be interesting to hear from them we certainly uh would like to hear from them but we don't know and I'm not sure if the prosecutors are coming down or not have we anything I didn't get a chance to ask them anything um you know as we've seen sometimes they just let the verdict speak for itself they do not come down and talk um trying to just stay away not want to create any issues further down the road right and you know sometimes they don't come down and talk because this that you know the Danny siss factor is still involved with the Madigan trial and that is upcoming so and so to to your point it it seems unlikely that we're going to hear from the prosecutors but um anyways toss back to you guys in the studio for now okay you guys thank you stand by for with us too though yes absolutely okay we will be keeping an eye on anything that happens there in the courthouse thank you Craig and Sarah and we just got word uh a reaction from former mayor Lori Lightfoot about this guilty verdict uh she says uh quot with this jury's verdict at Burke should rightfully be remembered as a man who elevated personal ambition and greed overd doing the people's work uh along the way Burke has had many enablers the pernicious practice of Alder prerogative which despite efforts to eliminate it persists to this day especially in zoning and development decisions the other elected officials who over the years looked the other way as Burke systematically monetized the finance committee for his own personal benefit and the party who gave Burke control over judicial nominations so that Decades of jurists became beholden to him obviously there's more as well but mayor life foot former mayor liot reacting strongly as well although Ed Burke was a a big part of uh her election so that is interesting to see this kind of a reaction and I'm certain we will be getting so much more reaction throughout the afternoon I wonder if we can bring in our legal analyst Chris holling sitting here on the set with us uh just wondering if he can walk us through because we mentioned or uh Sarah schy mentioned that uh Ed Berg will be back in courp for a post-trial hearing June 19th uh Quay will be back uh for a post-trial hearing June 17th what happens during a post-trial hearing and so so when we talk about a pre-trial or post-trial hearing in this situation it's it's really a sentencing hearing um and so that's really what the judge has set um upon the the entry of the of the verdicts from the the jury once the jury is discharged um one of the very last things that she did was to set the next court proceeding and the next court proceeding is the sentencing and there's a a large number of steps that will happen between now and that date for sentencing including the preparation of what's called called a pre-sentence investigation report a very thorough background check that's done into Alderman Burke um really his Soup To Nuts background into who he is his background obviously we know a lot about his background because of his role in in in in public life here in Chicago but it it it really goes from almost his childhood through his education through his employment um up through all of the work that he has done on the city council um and so it's prepared by a probation officer and the probation department uh is an entity of the Court um they will do a like I said a very detailed very thorough analysis which will also cover not only the the the employment pieces but also Financial um any you know all of the work associated with the law firm any other employment that he has including the work that he did with the city council do you do you know what kind of sentencing we're looking at that's a great question um and it largely depends on what referred to as the sentencing guidelines um now the sentencing guidelines are are now they are no longer mandatory um they are they're essentially discretionary but the guidelines are what will frame how judge Kendall will approach that sentencing hearing uh I I I had an opportunity just to do a very very quick look and again this is probably very conservative in terms of the numbers but the guidelines as I see it could anywhere from be around 8 to 10 years okay now it's it's up it's very much up to the Court's discretion I expect the given Alderman Burke's age and the fact that he has no criminal history that she will go significantly down from that guideline range um but that will also be a part of that pres pre-sentence investigation report that I just mentioned okay all right well we'll check with you soon stay right here let's head on over to Chuck gy investigative reporter joining us now with more Chuck well this racketeering charge that Ed Burke was convicted of today that really is the Lynch pin of not only this prosecution but the Fate that Burke now faces with the up to 20 years in prison just on that particular count uh that that law was actually begun by the by Congress as a way to battle organized crime in this country the mob the traditional Mafia of course over the past 45 or 50 years it has branched out to cover all sorts of things from crooked politicians to drug dealers to different types of quote unquote organized crime in this case Ed Burke is facing the reality of a lengthy prison sentence if it gets that far because he was convicted of this racketeering count one there you see it very difficult to prove the feds of course have been criticized for bringing this in these kinds of cases over the years although it now seems commonplace that if you are a politician accused of these kinds of things and you have been doing it with more than one person that racketeering conspiracy is going to end up on the charge sheet that comes from a Federal grand jury but to say that this today was a slam dunk for the federal government uh it it was about as close as you can get without having LeBron James in the room just that one count uh against Burke if he was acquitted on but everything else the government set out to prove they apparently did and we were talking a few minutes ago about planning the seat of reasonable doubt this jury obviously had not only no Reasonable Doubt but very little doubt at all in the case at least against Ed Burke one of the very first Witnesses who testified in this case a political science Professor uh she said as Mayors came and went Alderman Burke was the one constant on the Chicago city council you mentioned that he was a top Federal target for decades spanning dozens of us attorneys FBI agents in charge and City Hall administrations once again tell us some context how big of a corruption case was this for the feds compared to some of the other corruption cases unfortunately we have covered here in the city well there's a lot of competition for big corruption cases in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois Judy as we know we've covered many of them over the decades but just the passage of time that Ed Burke has been mentioned in the same breath with some type of wrongdoing or suspicion it was the late 1970s that mayoral candidate Jane burn used the phrase an evil cabal of men now run the city of Chicago well Ed Burke was on that very small group the small cabal of what she considered to be evil men she was elected because a lot of people remembered what she said about that and you would have to think that today wherever she is mayor burn is looking down on this and thinking they finally got Ed Burke the man who I talked about in the late 1970s that's incredible okay thank You Chuck and let's check in with Laura Washington also standing by for some more reaction and thoughts on on exactly what's happened here today obviously the racketeering charge the hardest one to prove was proven and accepted by the jury and uh Ed Burke stands now convicted yes and I think that this uh both does not bold well as I think Sarah schy mentioned earlier for former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan there are many parallels between Burke and madakin the primary one is the power Michael Madigan is probably the most powerful house speaker in in Illinois if not in the nation during his time he was he was greatly feared and he has also had been under the federal microscope he had been under had been the subject of many failed investigations for many years the other issue is that Danny ciz Danny ciz is was collecting material for the Madigan case as well as the bir case and so if the jury believed in in the evidence that Danny Le was able to collect and much of it was recorded in either vi video or audio or on paper if they beli the Burke evidence that means that that that Mike Madigan has a lot to fear there and it just again says something about the the state of political corruption in Illinois as Chuck mentioned uh this is nothing new we've had more than three dozen aldermen have been convicted Chicago Alderman have been convicted since the 70s of federal crimes Illinois is seen as the most corrupt state in the nation and has been in terms of of public officials for the last several years according to new University of Illinois study so this is nothing new but this this is going to be a message that may be heard more more loudly than than before because you you've got one very powerful man in the Chicago city council who's just gone down and and another one's in the docket to your point uh that the Michael Madigan's trial is coming up in in just about 4 months so you know if it doesn't get delayed we'll we'll see that in April so that is coming down the pike very shortly uh Laura and when you think about um the message that this sends and whether you think this is going to make a difference in terms of ridding corruption uh not just in Chicago but in the state do you think this actually is going to to make a difference in that well you know Mark history does not bold well for that it's the corruption's been endemic for decades we've had we've had several Illinois Governors uh be convicted of federal crimes we have two aldermen former aldermen who are currently under indictment and probably a few more probably under investigation I would go back to heart back to what Lori lewood said as you recall Lori lewood campaigned in 2019 campaign and won the mayor's race on Ed Burke by making the case that Ed Burke was and and the way he practiced uh his governing in City Hall was corrupted that all that needed to be reformed formed she wanted to eliminate automatic prerogative allomatic prerogative has a lot to do with the power that aldermen have the power that gives them leverage over regular citizens over companies over developers the kind of Leverage we saw Ed Burke use in this case she campaigned against that she didn't get very far there was some minor re forms of automatic privilege but it has not been eliminated it continues and and Alderman continue to hold that close so to answer your question I think the jury is still out on whether or not this is really going to make a a a major difference in corruption in City Hall in Illinois but butura just one followup on that do you think it will shine a broader light though on City Council in general in terms of the conflict of interest when when when older people some in very powerful and influential positions are running their own business while running the city's business absolutely will shine a light did but there there have been several measures that have come before the city council over the years to eliminate to that connection uh there's been a call for many by many government reformers to make automatic positions full-time those positions are paid very well by our by normal standards and the expectations of those positions are that you in many ways you're a mini mayor of your own Alderman which requires you to be spend a lot of time and dedicate yourself to those Wards and the argument has been that you should not have side businesses not only because you should not have the time or resources to to take care of them if you're really doing Serving the public but because they do present these conflicts of interest it's been argued many times over the years and and I and I I don't think that this city a city and city council is going to especially folks that that have positions that benefit or or can can appear to benefit from their from their government roles they're not going to vote to eliminate that and as you said uh as you said Laura that aldermanic prerogative aldermanic privileg is is what the jury is looking at and saying that he used Ed Burke used to uh exploit and to to shake down and was part of this racketeering scheme the power that he held uh so let's check in with Sarah schy back at the courthouse and uh with more news for us right now Sarah you know what here comes the legal team right now edart his family and his attorneys as you can see are walking out right now let's see if they come and talk to the media Chris Joe will you talk to us well family that's Sor well um there you have it obviously his attorneys nor edber or his family stopped uh to talk to the media um Ed Brook walked out with his wife and two of his daughters and some also extended family members and both of his attorneys Chris gar and Joe Duffy also walked out with him and did not come into what we're calling the media pen here to talk to us um as you all know this was a very long trial a very very methodical trial I'm and we're going to I'm going to we're going to recap it we want to roll the tape to recap it or live picture Sarah we're taking a live picture outside right now I know you can't see this our camera outside is showing the former Alderman now getting into the waiting vehicle again with his family uh they decided not to talk to the media as they bypass that lobby area where all the cameras are situated it looks like he said a few words there right before getting into uh that waiting SUV uh that is going to take him off uh as you said Sarah Ed Burke walked out with his wife an and extended family members as well that SUV now uh turning the corner waiting at the light as Ed Burke uh stands a convicted man uh this afternoon uh Sarah let's go back to you uh in terms of the the reaction from the family that you were able to see and Craig you might be able to to weigh in this on weigh in on this as well because you were right there in the courtroom what was the reaction to the charges and and to the uh to the verdict being read about those charges to his family yeah yeah nothing nothing overtly emotional no sounds no gasps nothing that was audible in the courtroom I just saw heads that were hung down by family members I couldn't quite see where Anne was just from the people that were sitting in front of her but uh daughter uh to Ann's left son-in-law to her left uh both had their heads down just looking like wow what just hit us right EXA I exactly and and something big justes hit him yeah yeah I mean I think this is um obviously a lot for them to digest I mean you know when Ed Burke walked into this courtroom every single day for six weeks you know he wasn't one of those defendants that ever hid from the the cameras he he was kind of the old Ed bur you know he walked right by and kind of walked by with confidence when he sat at that defense table a lot of times he would lean back and you know kind of do this with his hands I mean he really I sometimes even got the impression that he's here to beat this you know I he thought he was going to to to Really beat this well and and I wonder if part of that just simply goes to the fact that for years and years and years edberg just operated the way he wanted to operate he ran the FI the finance committee with an iron fist he was the king of city council for quite some time until Lori came along and you know things started changing but you know he's used to being the one in charge he lost that being in charge in here and now his future his fate his freedom is lost and up to the hands of the judge virin Kendall to decide sentencing what's interesting and I don't know if the attorneys have waited on this if if so I missed it but June 19 seems like a awfully long time to wait for the post-trial hearing right and there's still a little bit of confusion on whether that is an actual sentencing date or some type of postt trial um so we'll either way not going back to court for 6 months right now interesting thing for for Ed Burke he's 79 years old but on December 29th is his 80th birthday he's going to be celebrating his 80th birthday in a way very differently than he'd hoped for planned for you know we talked about his power and and there were mayors that didn't like him right I mean there were mayors that didn't really get along with him mayor mayor Dy Rah Emanuel um but you know they he was Untouchable with those two Mayors it really wasn't until Lori B foot and the reason why is because he had he was already facing an indictment at that point I mean her entire election you know her entire candid candidacy and election was based on public corruption and because of the charges against Ed Burke so obviously a little bit easier for her to go ahead and uh you know attack him and confront him um as I was mentioning before this is a obviously a very long trial lots of evidence involved let's recap the trial right now 5 years after butcher paper line Ed bur's finance committee office signifying an FBI raid the federal government's case against the former powerful Alman has come to an end close to 40 Witnesses 6 weeks of testimony about 100 recordings and 350 pages of jury instructions a tall order for a jury of nine women and three men their task was deciding if Burke is guilty of racketeering bribery and extortion Burke is accused of using his official position for private gain specific speically steering business to his private law firm clor and Burke the government divided the case up with four separate schemes Burke is accused of threatening to block a field museum fee increase after it dropped the ball on an internship application for Burke's goddaughter jurs heard a recording of a tur Burke showing his frustration to a field museum official well uh what I wanted to do was to I'm sure I know what you want to do because of the chairman of the committee on finance calls the president of the park board your proposal is going to go nowhere as proof to the extent of Burke's power jurors heard testimony from the former Field Museum president who explained how Museum officials scrambled to make their mistake up to Burke another scheme involved a Burger King near 41st in South palaski in burk's Ward Burke and his codefendant former 8 Pete Andrews shut a renovation project down because the restaurant did not have a driveway permit Burke is accused of using the permit issue as he tried to convince the Burger King owner to use his private Law Firm for property tax appeal work in a recorded phone conversation with the owner's son zohab danani Burke mentions the law firm and permits in the same sentence we were going to talk about the real estate tax uh representation and uh you're going to have somebody get in touch with me so we can expedite your permits former Building Department officials and employees testify that only the building department has the authority to shut down a renovation project not an alder and the lack of a driveway permit is not a cause for it meanwhile a poll sign in front of a Northwest side Vinnie's Beverage Depot far from Burks Ward captured his attention after codefendant and developer Charles Quay agreed to hire Burke's Law Firm hoping the powerful Alderman would help him because it was a sign out of use for several years the city refused to allow Benny's to use it Quay was worried he stood to lose hundreds of thousand of dollars on the development but the centerpiece of the government's case involves the Old Post Office renovation project when former Alderman turned government moles Danny siss agreed to cooperate with the feds to save himself from bribery charges prosecutors told the jury there was no expectation the investigation would involve Burke until he is heard on a recording with soise pitching his law firm while you're at it recommend the good firm of Cl and Burke Burk solise is the middleman between the old Old Post Office developer Anne Burke the former Alderman is accused of strong arming the developer to use his private Law Firm for tax appeal work so far we no the cash register has not uh rung yet when the Old Post Office developer dragged his feet on agreeing to use clapter and Burke Burke is heard saying this Infamous line to siss so do we land the uh the tuna and when the tuna had yet to be landed and the old post office developer needed if money which required finance committee approval Burke says this to soas as far as I'm concerned during closing arguments Burke's attorney consistently criticized prosecutors for not calling soas as a witness in her rebuttal argument assistant us attorney Sarah Striker argued what matters in this case are the words that come out of Burke's mouth and she told jurors they are absolutely devastating to him Federal bill and obviously guilty 13 of 14 pounds those his own words were definitely devastating to edberg and and and of course prosecutors were counting on that very much so and of course you know it was the defense who called Danny sise to try to undermine him prosecutors did not call them but they didn't need to because everything significant they had right there on those tapes right and you know they made it pretty clear to the jury that you know it was the words that mattered from Ed Burke it wasn't necessarily siss so Le his motivation why he did it or the fact that he cut a deal with the federal government um none of that mattered it was is is it really was kind of noise really and really what ended up mattering was some of those words that we just heard come right out of Ed's mouth you know I was making an observation in the couple times that I've been in court listening to some of these tapes and and clips we've heard before and where you could hear Danny sise talking to Ed Bert my observation was it seemed he was very well coached by the feds on how to ask the questions in order to get Ed Burke to say what prosecutors needed him to say to make their case um and that was part of the reason why the defense called Danny soise the defense wanted to somehow really try to you know prove to the jury that he was coached that you know this was all about Danny siss um but again is you know I've mentioned before this whole thing started with the old post office and it was Ed Burke that opened the door to this investigation to begin with he's the one that off offered up claster and burp to dannyel sise and so once that door was open then the feds ran with it yep and and the FEDS ran with it and they ran it across the Finish Line right and they're and they're continuing to run with it back to you guys okay absolutely and and Judy you bought brought up a really good point and I want to touch on what what Sarah and Craig were talking about Danny ciss was not called by the prosecution and you brought up a good question and we're going to follow up on that we have Chris who's sitting with us here on the set our legal expert here um interest interesting strategy for the prosecution not to call Danny siss but you I think have a take on why you think that is it it certainly was a gutsy call um and and not and it and it potentially could have backfired but as we all know now it didn't backfire the the government's decision not to call um Danny siss is a strategic one and principally because at least from the way as I look at it they're saving Danny siss for the up coming Madigan trial um there's there's a lot to be thought of in terms of Trying to minimize the amount um of potential material that a cooperating witness um will have that could be used by the defense so when you have someone like Danny ciss on the stand he's going to be cross-examined extensively uh and he's also going to as part of his direct examination if the government doesn't call him there is not all that much paper that the the amount of material that can be used for cross examination down the line is minimized so the government made the Strategic call and here the right strategic call not to call Danny ciss in their case and chief not to have him you know presented with an extensive amount of direct examination and then a significant amount of cross examination they've saved him they've saved the powder the powder is dry and when the next trial comes I fully expect uh that Alderman ciss will be on that stand at the Mike Madigan TR and and when you talk about let's just dig in on that just a little bit more because when you talk about that that aspect of amount of paper amount of cross-examination that the defense would get to do uh after if the prosecution brought him up you're saying that that's eliminating options for potentially Mike Madigan's defense team to bring up something that happened in this trial under oath that could be then used to sort of exculpate him every single time that a cooperating wi is either in interviewed by the I'm so sorry we got to head over to the courthouse again prosecutors are just about to speak let's head over there right now good afternoon my name is Maris pascall I'm the acting United States Attorney for the northern district of Illinois here in Chicago I'd like to start first by thanking the members of the jury in this case who answered their call to service and served conscientiously over the many weeks of this trial this case was about bribery and extortion occurring at the highest levels of Chicago city government our office represents the people of the United States the people have a right to honest and open government where decisions about official actions that public officials take or do not take are based not on their own private financial interest but on the public interest that did not happen in this case in this case defendant Burke had his hand out from money he tied the giving of a official action by him to the giving of money to him in three separate corrupt episodes and in the field museum episode he attempted to extort money from the field museum for the benefit of a family member of a close friend of his the public voted Mr Burke into office and they trusted that he would be guided by Mo and motivated by pursuing the common good he betrayed that trust we are gratified that the jury saw this case for what it was and that they held Mr Burke accountable for his corrupt conduct here with me uh standing behind me are the four prosecutors who tried the case Sarah Striker Diane MacArthur Timothy Chapman and shushma Raju together with am bachu who's the head of our public corruption and organized crime section in addition to thanking them of course my thanks go out to the FBI the city of Chicago inspector General's office and the Amtrak Inspector General for their hard work and dedication that led up to the successful resolution of this case our office remains Resolute and determined to root out public corruption occurring at any and all levels of government and to bring those who commit public corruption offenses to Justice at this time I'm going to turn the microphone over to FBI special agent in charge Robert wheeler who has some remarks and then I'm going to come back and I'll I can entertained a few questions at that time thank you I would just say briefly uh public corruption matters are extremely important to the FBI they're a major priority for FBI Chicago we will continue to work these matters as we've done for a long time and we'll continue to do it for this case I'm just very grateful to the FBI Chicago agents the analysts and staff that brought it and worked so well with the prosecutors here in the nor District it's a real Testament to the quality of work um that takes place here can't thank them enough and also some of the partners that we had along the way um city of Chicago officer Inspector General uh Inspector General Amtrak and just magnificent partnership with the Northern District here thank you okay questions let's this say for the corruption that just continues to come out of City Hall and city government government here and historically why this city has such a bad thre that's a $64,000 Question um so Alman Burke obviously joins a long list of corrupt city council Alderman who have been convicted of corruption charges over here in federal court um uh all I can say is what I said before that we're determined to continue to investigate these cases uh using any and all lawful tools at our disposal to faret out uh that corruption do you think this is going to send a message that is going to change any Behavior going forward well uh we have not had the sentencing yet obviously Alman Burke was a very powerful Alderman this case has had massive publicity uh and I'd like to think that public officials out there who are tempted to start down this path will be either further on notice that you know the Federal Government is out there the FBI is out there the US attorneys offic is out there and we're aggressively pursuing these type of matters Ed Burke was an alderman for 50 years before your office brought charges against him what took it so long because this clearly established a pattern of behavior by edberg and I think it would be reasonable for someone to look at the evidence presented to the jury and say this was not the first crime that the alate committed why was he allowed to operate to amass the kind of power that he used to extort the victims in this case well in the United States ma'am uh uh trials are conducted based on evidence why did it take so long for that evidence trials are conducted based on evidence it is the responsibility of our office together with federal law enforcement to accumulate assemble that off that evidence present it to a point where we're satisfied it meets the stza Beyond a reasonable doubt that's the process the the the speculation about other things that went on and why it couldn't be done sooner that's all a function of what evidence is available to us in the particular investigation MRC are you disappointed in the exer and uh we respect the uh verdict of the jury in in all its respects um obviously the jury was instructed to treat each defend defant separately to give separate consideration to each defendant and they diligently discharge that responsibility and follow those instructions and they reach the verdict so I'm not going to say I'm going to say I respect the verdict of the jury do you have any sense of what kind of prison time Ed B could face on this I know there's the general guidelines but I I I don't you're aware of the statutory maximum time but I don't have anything more more precise that I can the maximum sir the our sentencing decisions will be made recommendations will be made after the completion of the prenten investigation report after we've had a chance to weigh all the aggravating and mitigating evidence and then we'll formulate and submit our sentencing recommendation just a couple more questions is the investigation still going uh our public corruption investigations are always still going we're always eagerly not eagerly have our ears open for members of the public who feel like their public officials have not lived up to their responsibility to conduct on his government and so we're we're always open for business and we're all always all ears for those matters mation of the prosecution's offer of Danny solis's non non prosecution agreement do you think that what Danny did help convict Ed Burke and does it Merit him not spending a single day in jail for also serving as a corrupt aler person well there were extensive jury arguments in this case and I'll just boil it down to one proposition that we feel like we presented the best evidence going to show Alman Burke's knowledge and intent the words out of his own mouth and we don't regret uh that trial strategy one bit what should Mike Madigan read into this room so Madigan is a pending case I can't comment on that okay fellas I'm have to ladies and gentlemen I'll need to wrap it up thank you thank you all right there you have it you have been hearing from the acting us attorney here and also the FBI special agent in charge talking about the 13 guilty y verdict uh 13 counts uh this afternoon against former Chicago Alderman ated ber want to bring back in Chris Hing who's sitting here on the set with us you were in the middle of talking but I also want you to to comment on that there was a question about how long this took uh for them to finally bring charges against the former Alderman the reality is you know several weeks five to six weeks of of trial but they have been going after him for they have been investigating for a long time yes I don't think there's any doubt um that that Alderman B has been a target of the US attorney's office for some time I I think that's pretty clear um I think the questions that were just posed certainly confirm that um it it does it it it it's when you have a situation where you have someone that's been in office for so long um as as Sunny Pasqual the acting us attorney um just mentioned you have you can only bring a case when you have the evidence before you that is sufficient to establish the elements of the crime Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and if you don't have that you're not in a position to bring it obviously over the last three or four years with the efforts of alderman Solis they were able to do that they were able to get Alderman Burke on tape they were actually able to have video recordings audio recordings and that evidence in the view of the US attorney's office was sufficient at that point in time to bring the charges that ultimately led to his conviction today okay let's head back out to the courthouse Sarah Shelty is standing by and we're checking with her after hearing from the acting us attorney and the special agent in charge from the f Sarah what can you tell us well one thing that they've certainly mentioned that this is a case of bribery extortion and racketeering at at the highest level in the city and it certainly is the highest level in the city I know we have talked a lot about matter of fact it was talked about in this trial about who has more power was it m Burke or was it a mayor but certainly consistently consistently for over 50 years it was certainly Ed Burke that had probably most amount of powers there's no doubt when they said this is absolutely at the highest level um I also um certainly there was was was struck about the fact and the message coming from the US attorney's office they do this all the time when there is a public corruption trial but they do the message out there is the the prosecutors are here the FBI agents are here and they are continuing continuing to investigate um these type of of of cases um in terms of sentencing uh he was asked about sentencing and and are they going to ask for the maximum he said at this point they have to wait for sentencing reports and they will come up with some type of recommendation on sentencing at a later date the other thing that kind of struck me also was the fact when he was asked about Danny siss and if they at all if the prosecutors at all regret the kind of deal they struck with Daniel siss Danny siss himself was take facing a bribery charge and he um was not he was struck to deal with the government where he's not going to have to serve one day in jail or prison they said we absolutely do not regret the deal that we struck with them because uh this is the result of it um back to you guys all right Sarah shy really appreciate your coverage again she has been on this case from day one here for us there in the federal courthouse Sara thank you want to bring in Laura Washington once again our political analyst uh Laura you have covered Burke for a long time Danny so leiss for a long time here in City Hall your final thoughts before we wrap up here well I would just pick up on something that Sarah shy touched on and that is the federal prosecutors saying that they are always investigating that they are always looking at corruption in City Hall and Beyond and that is the message that they they want to get across loud and clear and they also said you know if if you know of anything as a citizen as an elected official as a public official please bring it to us that message may get maybe one thing that may get across more clearly because of this conviction maybe we'll give people who are aware of other wrongdoing who've been caught in in that kind of a web of wrongdoing with people like Ed Burke maybe that'll give them some courage and incentive to come forward Laura Washington thank you very much and let's uh take a look at Tony Thedford here as well and let's see your final thoughts on this this uh verdict that came down and in terms of what Ed Burke is now facing well I think the focus has to be obviously now on sentencing um I Heard It suggested that the guideline range is 8 to 10 years years somewhere in that space um I agree that he's not likely to get that sort of a sentence but certainly for a man who's nearly 80 years old any length of time incarcerated is significant uh we should also look and uh to figure out whether or not the uh the attorneys for uh Alderman Burke are likely to file some sort of an appeal and attempt to keep him out of custody until the appellant issue is resolved he has an absolute right to appeal this verdict uh that will certainly happen but whether or not he'll be in custody while the appeal is being fought is an open question at this point all right Tony thank you really appreciate your time here today as well once again former Chicago elderman Ed Burke found guilty on all the one count against him including the most serious charge of racketeering absolutely we'll have much more coming up today at 4:00 and we will see you then this has been an eight

Channel: ABC 7 Chicago

Views: 17,062

Keywords: ed burke, trial, verdict, jury, corruption trial, federal trial, chicago, breaking news, former alderman, ed burke chicago trial, ed burke trial chicago, chicago ed burke

Id: eR-7IpKgXms

Length: 77min 17sec (4637 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 21 2023