Streaming Live: Verdict reached in former Ald. Ed Burke racketeering trial

agrees did I call 64 thank you thank you very much but you didn't say the year 19822 and you remember that because I remember you had to work a double that day I did yes yeah yeah and I I think that was pre before them giving you a Christmas dinner yeah yeah I opened uh the gifts with the kids through uh a a email message car carrier carrier pigeon yeah all right and thank you the Oak Forest High School basketball team will be sporting some new gear at their next game thanks to an Alum chasing his dreams the college player who got his start here wanted to get back our dramont Terry was at the school for the big surprise I haven't been here since maybe the summer I think as Robbie Avala walks the Hall of Oak Forest hi memories come back for this basketball star uh High School I was about 68 so I grew about two more inches I'm at 610 now while tall in stature his heart just might be the biggest thing about him you know here's my uh All State plaque I was all state 2021 2022 today he plays college ball for Indiana State University after two years on the College Court Robbie's using the money athletes are making in their name image and likeness and giving back allowing for us to you know make a little bit money off our name you know to you know help us out financially while we're in college you know something definitely you know you can't go wrong on these lockers are a little too small for me the 20-year-old opted to do something big for the varsity basketball team what are you gifting the players with I did so I I got them a pair of the Giannis immortality I think the 3.5s 20 new kicks for every player and Coach depending on the size around $100 so Robbie knows this is bigger than basketball and more about [Music] leaving we have breaking news into the CBS 2 Newsroom a jury has reached a verdict in the Ed Burg trial the former Alderman facing 14 counts in a Federal indictment and they include among other things racketeering bribery and attempted extortion this is a live look at the uh well we have some tweets there we do these are tweets from our CBS Chicago Crews that are stationed at the durksen federal building it says the jury is in court now they are passing the verdict forms to a judge the judge is reading over the verdict forms as the courtroom waits in silence we're refreshing this as our crews update this constantly not only are they in ins the courtroom but also outside waiting for reaction as we learn these counts we now want to take a live look at the durksen federal building if we have that shot where the verdicts will be read this was a six- week trial 40 Witnesses 150 secret recordings at the center of this perhaps the most powerful Alderman ever to sit in this Chicago city council right now one of the uh one of bur's codefendants uh the judges announcing that the jury F Charis qu guilty of counts 12 and 13 also guilty on count 14 you'll have to bear with us a number of of counts for not only Ed Burke but his two uh codefendants as well so we will be going through that as we learn it with you right here from Twitter we've got a guilty count on count 15 also for his codefendant and that's Charles Queen Peter Andrews was the other uh defendant in this case three defendants altogether Ed Burke Charles Quay and Peter Andrews essentially Ed Burke was accused of using his power as a city council finance committee chairman and longtime 14th Ward Alderman to lure people to his private tax law business so again we're going through here we have Charles quig guilty on count 15 14 and we're waiting for updates right along with you looking for another update again 14 and 15 for Quay Joe as we uh bring in these counts let's send it over to you thank you for joining us here and uh as we await the reading of all of these counts yeah a couple of observations off the top here Mar and Jim is that we don't have a hung jury there were some who thought that might be an issue here today but we do know that in fact they have reached a verdict and we're hearing some of those verdicts right now against some of the other defendants the other thing we should probably set up here for folks who haven't been following this closely is just the difficulty uh the jury had in in these instructions we as we sifted through some 300 plus Pages here we're getting the first Ed Burke uh guilty on count one count one was one of the biggie that biggies that was racketeering as I was saying though there are charges counts and then subsections of these counts that the jurors had to sift through this was some 300 pages of jury instructions broken down and basically boiled down to maybe 30 or 35 in the end but in these forms the jurors had to essentially agree on one of three subsections in order to get to a guilty verdict on count one so this was extremely complicated even legal Minds were looking at this breaking it down or trying to anyway and saying this was an incredibly difficult and complicated job for this jury and as we know now it's taken three days two full days after yesterday and then half a day today so this has been a lot of work for this jury but we do know that Ed Burke has been found guilty on count one that was racketeering and uh again as we mentioned part of this this count one is attempted bribery official misconduct and then use of an interstate facility to Aid unlawful activity in violation of Title 18 and then the section the other thing to keep in mind here essentially is that this is sort of like conspiring to agree to do something unlawful and there need to be two overt acts these subsections if you will in order to get to the guilty on that first count so the jury has done that with count one that was the racketeering count and again these all go back to charges of Ed Burke using his position as an alderman to to try to get something on the back end of this namely business for his law firm uh Ellie can you repeat that for me please okay we should probably point out too that there are no cameras allowed in federal court so that's why we are seeing the Twitter feed right now with some of these explanations and some of the guilty verdicts that are coming in again three defendants including Ed Burke we know there's another uh guilty on count 17 for Charles Quay um Charles Quay was facing one two three four five counts as I see it here so I think it's now guilty on 14 15 and 17 um let let's bring Irv Miller in our legal analyst I believe Irv is with us right now Irv first of all I guess as you look at this and and let's get your reaction to guilty on count one first for edber go ahead Megan so Joe just asked um your thoughts on guilty on count one for Ed count one is the Big Town that's the 20 year ones the rering count which means they had to find against two racketeering acts in order to F it guilty that one it is the most serious charge are you surprised no I'm not surprised about this what about your thoughts on the other uh we have qu guilty count 17 um count 17 is lying to the FBI uh I'm not surprised about that one either are there any that you're you're surprised we're not getting a a guilty for especially on the Burke front I don't know what the verdict is on Andrews yet but I suspect that be be lying to the FBI but I don't know if that's it looks like Andrew is not guilty on all counts okay and I'm right about that I'm not surprised they had to read this case on two Joe any other questions uh you know what Megan we're going to ask you to stand by there because we're having some issues with your audio and your microphone so we want to revisit you and herb as soon as we get that straight out but um we do have two new verdicts on Ed Burke count two guilty count three guilty as well so Ed Burke found guilty so far on counts one two and three um and these are racketeering is count one two is corruptly soliciting and demanding things of value and count three use of an interstate facility to promote bber bribery and official misconduct two more verdicts in right now guilty as you can see there on count four and five not guilty count six and guilty on count seven so not on six count six was conspiracy to commit extortion that involved the Burger King parking lot and as you know if you've been following this there were four alleged schemes including a Burger King parking lot the Old Post Office a benie sign and so we we do know now that the conspiracy to commit extortion in the Burger King case was found not guilty but up to that point 1 2 3 4 five and seven guilty now we're hearing eight and nine also guilty so this at this point eight of nine counts against Burke he has been found guilty the one not guilty is count six uh count 8 use of an interstate facility to promote bribery and official misconduct involving the Burger King that was a guilty and then count nine use of an interstate facility to promote bribery and official misconduct that also involving the Burger King case the next two counts against dead Burke also guilty count 11 and count 15 count 11 corruptly accepting and agreeing to accept things of value count 15 use of an interstate facility to promote bribery and official misconduct again guilty on all so far except one of the 15 against Ed Burke um Megan I'm hoping we have the audio figured out with your okay we do not just yet um and then the other thing that came out we did hear a little bit from Megan that the the case against Andrew is all not guilty in that and as far as I know there's only been one that we've seen from Charles Quay and that was 17 which is making a false statement to the FBI and that was also a guilty uh verdict as well um let's set it back down to Marie and Jim at this point we have several of these uh verdicts coming in but just at this point 1 two three and then uh for for Ed Burke and then a few more for Quay so we'll wait to see where those come in right thank you Joe um our crews here are now getting a position as we work on Megan's audio to bring you some reaction an we're getting a new information 16 1918 is 16 18 19 three more three more guilty verdicts for Ed Burke apparently The Observers in the courthouse and courtroom say that he showed no emotion he's been there every day with his wife the former Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court and Burke we know that he's been there uh Quay has been in the hospital uh just in the past few days we understand that he is attending U by some sort of uh video conference or on the phone so he is not in the room uh where we haven't heard different but we assume Andrews is also in the room this is an incredible cumdown for the man who was uh one of the most powerful city council members in the city's history former chair of the finance committee the all important the powerful finance committee let's go back to um Megan hickey she is with our legal anal comprehensive list for Megan so we are just getting these as you guys are getting them and it's a little bit of a delay because we're actually downstairs right now while uh Chris and some of the other folks are still upstairs but we're catching up we've got jury finds Ed Burke guilty on count 11 and count 15 our legal analyst Irv Miller wanted to get your thoughts on those ones in particular um the big one was count one that's the 20-year one these others that are coming in right now are lesser uh charges uh the count 11 carries a 10year man uh maximum count 15 car carries a 5year maximum but that count One 20year Max that's the one that he was really worried about wow okay it looks like uh from Chris Tai we're learning that Ed Burke found guilty on all Rico counts attached to all episodes according to him he could be sentenced to 20 years for this count alone uh if you could explain a little bit what what a RICO count is and why that's significant um that's the account that deals with the individual racketeering acts that he committed um he needed to be found guilty of at least two racketeering counts and what you're saying he was found guilty on all of them but he only needed to be found guilty of two order to be guilty of count one and and to clarify guilty on 10 counts not guilty on one um this is I think pretty stunning to me I know this is something that that you have a lot of background in though what what are your thoughts on on just the the number of charges now that we're hearing he has found guilty on well actually as I've said the one is the important everything else is is extra uh it could go uh to enhance any potential sentencing that he may get in the future because he's convicted of all these other things that's what a judge will consider it sentencing but as far as guilty and not guilty he's guilty today uh he has to report to probation department to get what's known as a pre-sentence investigation so a judge could read that and say Here's what I'm going to sentence him to up to 20 and um because of his age uh because he has no criminal background um the judge is going to most consider that he's a public official that was corrupt and I suspect he's looking at possibly anywhere between 8 and 12 years on count one alone when you say up to 20 for that first count is is there a minimum what's the minimum there is no minimum but the that's controlled by what's known as Federal sent SE guidelines but those are advisory those are not mandatory a judge could deviate either way on the guidelines it's the maximum sentence that is the important thing in this case they have to stick to so we're looking at I mean just for that one alone potentially some some jail time but but again there's discretion if he uh Sur uh survives an appeal which is always going to come in this particular case he's looking at jail time no question about it so will we we won't see him walk through the lobby today they may insist that he goes up to the Marshall's office on the 24th floor to get fingerprinted and photographed or they may uh set a time for him to do that in the future so that would delay it not that much it probably takes about 15 minutes to get fingerprint and photographed up in the Marshall's office if that's the process right now okay and that's just just up to the judge's discretion or who decides that she'll turn to the Marshalls and say are you prepared to fingerprint uh one or more of these guys today wow amazing to think of uh the city's longest serving Alderman being fingerprinted um Joe had a couple questions for you I'm curious what you make of what the jury had to deal with here relatively speaking how complicated was this how difficult was it and in general I think the one point that we kept hearing from Burke's team anyway is that you have these allegations but I think as one of his attorneys said there's where's the beef you know there he wasn't he didn't necessarily get anything for these allegations that were made against him he was really did did you ever have to to pay to get the parking lot fixed well no did you ever have to did you ever give him your tax business well no um how do you think all of that washed out in the Jury Room I I don't think it made a difference in the jury because they're instructed that uh he's being charged only with attempted extortion uh and these cases the accounts that he's been found guilty of so far and that means the crime is the solicitation not the actual receipt of any money it's the mere fact that he tried to get something uh some monetary value in exchange for his official acts as an alderman of the city of Chicago IR I'm interested in your thoughts about the length of this deliberation I know they got it at around 2:15 on Monday it's now Thursday is this about what you are expecting and and what goes into a de deliberation like this one well I predicted it would be Tuesday so I'm I'm wrong already but um you had three defendants and you had four schemes basically in this case that they had to decide each count for each defendant so uh it took time obviously they did this carefully because there's a mixed verdict here this is not all guilties um you know the government was hoping for you know 19 guilties in this case uh and that's not what happened so uh it shows they followed the instructions they followed what the rules are it's obviously they work together as a group and came up with an intelligent answer in my opinion so do you feel like this is the sign of a conscientious jury in this case I do I mean if it was all guilty or all not guilty I would I wouldn't say that but the fact that they were able to distinguish between individuals in deciding guilt or not guilt means a lot to a lawyer that does this for a living how do you think the timing may be played into this with uh Christmas holiday coming up uh you know the last business day I guess being tomorrow I would say this is uh typical of what goes on in these public corruption cases um if you look at it you know all these that have been tried in this building this is a pretty average right now if it had gone past Friday and into to next year that would have been something really different than out of the ordinary um I don't know Joe if you had any other questions for for expert on the field right now but we're just Meg and IR it's Jim I want Irv I wonder if you can walk us through the appeal process and what will happen to the alderin during the appeal process so the next step is going to be a motion for new trial it will be uh heard in front of Judge Kendall sometime in the future those are never granted right now they're never granted the next stuty after that is to file an appeal with the seven circuit um court of appeals which sits in this building um they will take uh time to decide whether or not uh they're going to uh issue a decision quickly or or sit on it the most important question is when you're found guilty he's not going to be taken into custody today and he's not going to be taken into custody of the day of Sensei the question is will they let him stay out on bond during the pendency of the appeal but that'll be several months from now yeah okay we actually have Chris Tai with us right now you are straight out of the uh the the room I mean where it all happened I'll hand it over to you cuz you you saw it all happen yeah you know Megan and Irv um it was a very emotionally charged room as you can imagine uh Anne Burke came up to her husband just minutes after the sentence came down Irv and gave him a big hug and a kiss his grandchild was sitting behind them uh with number of his kids as one after the other after the other these counts all but one against Ed Burke um coming down guilty Pete Andrews of course I'm sure you guys have been recapping this so I'm kind of catching you Midstream but inside that Corum it was very tight uh you had a lot of us attorneys in there you had a huge presence of the US Marshall's office just to make sure everything is secure and IR I'm assuming that that's not uncommon I mean as I just walked down here took the elevators down here and excuse me I'm a little out of breath I me there's a wall of uh of security guards here there's a gaggle of media on what is nothing short of a historic day in the city of Chicago the longest serving Alderman of course of all time now loses his pension as a result of this assuming that this verdict holds um and Irv I can't help but think that this thing began one week after Halloween and here we are 5 days before Christmas and getting this conclusion really a tremendous amount of information dozens of witnesses over a 100 pieces of evidence a lot of it very intricate audio video evidence um this jury taking this amount of time just uh you know 30 some hours does that hit you about where you thought it would be I actually thought it' be somewhat shorter I thought it' come back on Tuesday but obviously they were dissecting these counts they they were dissecting the instructions and trying to do uh their job as jurors and and seeing Judgment of a of another person so they took it seriously and they didn't care that they had to keep coming back to federal court day after after day some of them from very long distances and they did their job and you know a lot of people were pointing to Burke's defense team and obviously there are three defendants here but let's talk about Ed Burke primarily because he is the name that so many Chicagoans for Generations have known he represents what has been considered the machine of Chicago politics there was so much behind the scenes ahead of this trial could the name Donald Trump be invoked in this trial uh and the answer was no because there was a concern that would inflame some of the jurors there was a pitch that hey in just a couple of days he turns 80 years old his defense team saying hey you know what let this guy go home for Christmas let him be home with his family and indeed he will uh he's only going from the 25th floor to the 24th floor right now to be fingerprinted then he'll go home they'll come back in June for a pre sentencing hearing and I guess that is pretty par for the course right the uh both sides get to file any objections to the preent investigation uh looking for clarifications if there's any mistakes uh the judge will ultimately decide what can stay in there PR sentence investigation what she'll consider and then eventually after all those Logistics are done she'll set a date for sentencing which uh the probation department will make a recommendation to her is what the probation officer feels is the right uh sentence in this case it's going to be jail time the question is how many years and for a guy who's turning 80 years old uh on the week of Christmas and New Year's 20 years on count one alone would be a life sentence well it would but you know you have to understand that is the maximum sentence that's not what he's going to get Federal s sensing guidelines come in a lot lower than that however the judge has the discretion to do what she wants irregardless of what is in the federal sentencing guidelines but uh I would submit it's going to be anywhere between 8 and 12 years is where I would put it uh looking at all the factors in this case I want to paint a little bit more of a picture a more Vivid picture of what was going on up in 2501 that's the courtroom of Judge Virginia Kendall she came in she indicated that the jury had reached their verdict about 5 minutes to 2:00 this afternoon the jury came out just about 20 minutes after that very quickly uh this all transpired and judge Kendall told all the parties involved you need to be close by you need to be within 10 or 15 minutes and indeed they assembled very quickly now Charles Quay one of the defendants the defendant involved in that Benny's poll sign episode was not in court today because he has apparently a medical condition he waved his right to be in the courtroom he did appear by web X I'm keeping an eye out over here and apologies to the control room I need to put my earpiece in here shortly but we are watching this Podium to see who may come to the podium there's a number of players here that we could hear from the US attorney for the northern district of Illinois of course he was in court Mr Pascal was in court today he could be talking likely to be the face and the voice of the US attorney's office even though he didn't particularly prosecute this case then of course there's the attorneys for Ed Burke who presumably are with their client right now on the 24th floor and then there's the attorneys for Pete Andrews who really are coming out of this Victorious know two ways about that a real uh open and close victory for the Andrews team and then the Charles Quay team also guilty on all counts we may hear from those attorneys as well then there is the question of this jury and Irv talked about it these jurors come from sometimes an hour hour and a half away Montgomery Illinois being one of those places uh they're coming here every day for the last six plus weeks and today they may we don't know this is always up to the jury they may come out and face the press and talk about what resonated with them and this case has so many layers to it um the judge said to the jury before they were excused thank you for your service I'm going to come back to that jury room and thank you personally she said time and time again this was a group of 12 people nine women and three men who worked very harmoniously together they were always on time anytime someone brought up Ed Burkin in their orbit they were always quick to mention it because there was a concern that they could get tainted she said this jury was above reproach the real key here is that how this jury interpreted the Danny siss testimony and the Danny siss undercover wires is hugely valuable for the US attorney's office still because of course he is not just the star witness in the Ed Burke case he is also the star witness in the Mike Madigan trial which as we know is slated for April but could be pushed back because of a number of legal maneuverings uh I want to just put my earpiece in here just so I can uh hear the folks back at the station if need be because perhaps I'm going on too long um but I just want to point out that the key here for this jury is that really a lot of people want to talk to them not just the defense attorneys for Mike Madigan uh to see hey you know what worked what should we be emphasizing what should we be downplaying when our case comes up also the prosecution would want to hear from them as well to see how they might want to augment the use of ciss in a federal prosecution so there are um really no two ways about this there are a number of characters here that we want to kind of hear from today it's unclear if any of them will talk it's very understandable if it's a zero across the board I would expect to hear from the US attorney um because obviously other than the Pete Andrew charges it was a pretty clean sweep for their team uh so guys back at the studio I just want to kind of give you an opportunity to weigh in here and see what questions you may have yeah Chris great recap there and I think it's important really as the judge pointed out to thank this jury because anyone who's ever been on jury duty knows what it entails and most of the cases I've been on one uh not half as complicated as this usually it's a one sheet jury instruction and you're there for a day these folks as we know have been there for six weeks and this was very complicated Chris I did want to ask you and Irv you touched on it there the the testimony of Danny siss and I think these the just sort of the vision of an undercover hidden camera sort of gives the perception that there's something going on there that you're on the inside of and I think the perhaps two quotes that really hurt Burke the most were did we land the tuna and and has the cash register rung yet uh your your opinion IRB I guess just on the importance of that selis testimony and how he was used in this trial not only by the prosecutors by wearing the wire but also by the defense on the stand you know the last thing uh prosecutor wants is to put on a witness that's dirty and he was dirty in a legal sense uh because then his credibility is issue when you have him uh recording the conversations uh and it's on tape his credibility isn't an issue it's the tape recordings that uh are the case and that's what the government typically does in this building uh and that's why the uh conviction rate in this building frankly is so high because they they take the time to do it right they they wire them up they do video so there's no issue now sois uh he's going to be used by the government uh in the future he got a sweetheart deal uh to cooperate with the government can you imagine the uh the hours that FBI agents put in in this case listening to those recordings listening to those conversations while they were actually occurring so this was a big um case for the government they invested a lot in it and obviously it's paid off up to this point or if I want to build on a question that Joe just asked there about another thing that may resonate with jurors and the public at large is the use of ruses where the federal government is able to tell Danny siss hey go into Ed Burke's office tell him a few untruths to try and stir the pot a little bit and get some information to learn what his motive is and there was some real concern in this case that jurors might view ruses I'll be them legal as problematic not only are they legal they're common they're instructed uh the jury is instructed that they are permissible um you never want to put a snitch in a situation where he could be getting information from an innocent person and it' be interpreted in a guilty manner if you could understand what they're what they're saying so the FBI is very careful on the on the ruses that they use so they're only getting somebody that is culpable and not some innocent guy out there that could blurt out something could end up in a Penitentiary but that's the kind of thing right and I'd like to you to weigh in if this is right or wrong that how the jury in this case interpreted the use of rses the use of the undercover tape could be beneficial to prosecutors in that Mike Madigan case uh very beneficial obviously uh he's he's now a proven reliable source uh in the eyes of a a jury even though his credibility wasn't an issue but the tapes said it all the tapes say everything in this particular case Okay Irv uh let's go back to the studio Irv I have a question for perhaps you both and Irv you've been in the law for many decades you have covered lots of these public corruption cases I think a number of people in our audience are wondering how could a guy like Ed bur who was so powerful for so long and so by everyone's count so very smart uh and certainly knew that he had to be careful in his utterances either privately or publicly how could this have happened to him he didn't think anybody was listening um you know obviously he didn't learn from bovich or George Ryan or all the other aldermen that have been convicted in this building and have been sent to the penitentiary he thought as long as he uh he thought as long as he uh was talking to a friend and not uh uh the FBI listening did he get away with whatever he thought uh he could uh what he used the words legally get away which which was obviously illegal do you think it was arrogance over time guys I want to point out sorry Jim go ahead no I was going to ask you do you think it was arrogance over time this was just the way business was done uh with his law firm and with his time as chairman of the finance committee that he just got sloppy you know when you use the words uh this is the way businesses was done you know frankly uh Gary Chico's testimony was was important to me just watching this and it seemed like uh uh it was put in for a reason and that is to show that this was not atypical of what was going on in the city ofic let's explain to viewers what that conversation was that was Ed Burke on a secret recording with former mayoral candidate and a political figure in his own right Gary Chico where Burke said hey you know this company that we're trying to get some donation money from isn't really doing what we're asking them to do maybe we need to check on their driveway permits and what that did I think from the prosecution standpoint and as you just underlined uh indicates that Burke treated this as sort of his mechanism his ticket to ride that may or may not be limited to just these four schemes you know I guarantee you that the FBI agent that was listening to that conversation put a big red flag on it uh so they could show it to the US attorney's office and say hey I think this may help you in your theory of the case Irv I've had a quick followup as well several of the legal sources I spoke with going into this verdict talked about the repetitive nature of many of these counts and many of these charges I'm hoping you can maybe explain to us how they got the jury to this guilty verdict on each count because it was important for them to reach agreement on these SoCal predicate charges right so this was not just the single charge they had a lot more to consider maybe you can explain how those predicate charges were so if you look at count one which is the RICO count you have to look at it as the umbrella and everything all the charges were Incorporated with respect to Burke in that umbrella uh and then they were broken down individually on all the subsequent counts counts 2 3 4 5 but they needed to show at least two of those racketeering acts uh guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt in order for the count one the racketeering charge to sustain a conviction to be found guilty of that so it's frankly you're right there's a repetitive nature of this under the umbrella together and then separately as different counts alleged in the indictment many of those also legal analysts are said that they on the way in figured he would probably get CLI on some of these you touched on it a minute ago were you surprised that he was guilty on all but one I was not surprised because there you know Sis's testimony U the tapes from siss were so powerful uh and that's why frankly there's a reason that Burke could couldn't take the stand in his own defense and that is he wouldn't be able to explain the words that he used uh what about the tuna uh did the the cash register hasn't run yet there's no way for him to explain that so that's why he couldn't take the stance so am I surprised that it came in uncontradicted by the government and it led to a conviction absolutely not but this conversation speaks to I think the larger conversation that we've talked about IR which is the raw tonnage of information that this jury has had to go through not the least of which are the 300 plus 300 plus pages of jury instructions uh we talked off camera yesterday juries time and again prove they take take this stuff very seriously sometimes outsiders look at the legal system with a jaded eye uh but I know you have said um that despite it being so complex this jury is doing what most juries do and they are taking it very seriously you know um a lot of people say that when a juror jury is out this long that means they're fighting back there I don't think that's the case with this particular jury I think they were going through each count going through uh how each count applied to each defendant and the fact that they made a split decision on several of these says that they were really using their brains and trying to come up with the appropriate conclusion um jurors sometimes you know get along great there there's one jury in K County from 30 years ago they get together every year as an annual event they stay in touch with one another uh it's my experience that jurors typically take this seriously uh they're going to call themselves The Ed Burke jury uh from now on uh and that's how they'll be known actually and Joe Duffy in his closing said to this group of 12 people this very well may be the most important thing you do in your life now he was trying to set the table and amplify The Dramatics perhaps in his client's favor but nonetheless to your point these are those moments in time for these individuals I just want to set the table here again for what I'm seeing uh behind our camera there is a bank of microphones we are waiting to find out whether or not we're going to hear from any of the defendants here obviously Pete Andrews or Ed Burke any of their attorneys the US attorney's office or any of the jurors who are all still upstairs the jurors are in with the judge we are understanding uh she's thanking them for their uh dedicated service Joe and so these are the moving parts that we're waiting for here in the next hour or so right Chris as we wait for that can you lay a little more of the foundation for us as far as the other two defendants in Peter Andrews and Charles Quay their connection to this case obviously Burke was the headline their connection and why in the end Andrews was found not guilty on everything and Quay basically was guilty on everything yeah so great Point um we're sometimes in the weeds where we need to zoom out and Ed Burke is touching all four of these so-called episodes um and uh what's what's happening is that Ed Burke was touching all four of the episodes um Pete Andrews was only involved in the Burger King scheme that of course is the scheme where Ed Burke now we can say by a jury's ruling tried to extort a billionaire texas-based Burger King franchisee to say Hey listen I will help you with your permitting if you hire clapter and Burke tax law firm to do your business that was the Machine by which Burke uh kind of orchestrated payment uh so Pete Andrews was only involved in that part of it Pete Andrews was limited exclusively to the Burger King scheme and what the jury found and and there were a lot of pieces and parts to the closing from Pete Andrews team but I think what was most Salient to those of us who sat through this every day was that the FBI came to Pete Andrews home at the same moment that Ed Burke's offices were being raided both at City Hall and in the 14th Ward they went to Pete Andrews and they asked him questions and the questions they asked him the order in which they were delivered the way they presented it the pictures they showed him of those Burger King franchises created enough doubt in these jurors Minds to say you know what Pete Andrews he was told that their name was deani and it was danan uh he showed showed them picture the FBI showed him pictures of Two Gentlemen who don't look like the same person he met 17 months prior for 27 minutes so what the jury uh Joe I think came back with was saying hey you know what I think the FBI may have tried to be a little too cute in trying to get Pete Andrews to kind of fall into their trap uh lastly here on Charles Quay he was only limited to the fourth of these four schemes and that is the Benny's poll sign up in Portage Park he of course the developer of that mall who was trying to use Burke influence to get his needs met and Burke again asking and got in that case um a contract signed with Charles Quay to work with clapter and Burke uh Burke's tax law firm all right we're going to ask you and IRB to stand by and we want to show you just quickly in case you are just joining us a graphic of all of the verdicts that did come down just a short time ago against Ed Burke and also Peter Andrews and Charles Quay we will show our viewers uh those counts that's coming right now and as we do show these counts we want to head over to now 32nd W Alderman Scott wagas who joins us now via Zoom Alderman can you hear me there he is Alderman can you hear us yes I can all right let's get your reaction first to the verdicts just read well I think this is a long time coming uh a lot of us you know knew there were ethical issues in the committee on uh finance that Ed Burke was running for many years uh when I became the finance chairman I think after he had reigned over it for several decades you know we really wanted to change the set of rules and the way that we operated and um really changed the way that he had been doing business so for a lot of us I think this was something that we we knew was wrong and eventually it was going to catch up with them and of course you know with the counts today uh and the convi we're at that point this for people watching this and saying this is just another black eye for Chicago politics and it's sort of how the business and the city is run you're saying what that it's no longer that way or people watching this case saying see this is still happening no I think it can still happen and you know we have to continue not only in the city council but across the state to uh set up ethics barriers that prevent elected officials who come into office or been in an office for a long time from continuing to uh you know commit this kind of public corruption and we still continue to see quid pro quos um in the way business is done and I and I think a lot of us want to make sure that you know as we go through this process as we become elected officials that we set up those barriers you know I think when um when mayor Lightfoot when she was first elected to office um she upset a lot of Al by saying hey we've got to change the way we're doing business here and removing Ed Burke from uh that position you know making making sure that he wasn't put back into it was a good step but we need accountability across the board so just doesn't continue but even with that if you look back uh just over the last few years the people I've served with um there's been at least half a dozen who've gone to prison for similar activities now on on this one with taxpayers uh losing out on what I think because billions of dollars in taxes when you look at what's happened with Madigan when you look at what happened with Burke um and this goes back decades it is really the taxpayers and the citizens who've been losing out well I know you're not as connected with Mike Madigan at least on a state level as you were with Ed Burke but if you were to read the tea leaves what does this mean for Mike Madigan well I think it sends a message to uh any wouldbe jurors there and to the different teams that in the different defense and the plaintiff side that or you know prosecution side that he's in pretty serious trouble um I think people are starting to look at this public corruption with more of an eye toward putting an end to the old machine politics and I think that's the right direction to go um I wasn't surprised that the jurors uh deliberated for that long because this was very complex and I think um you know as your experts were testifying here it's it's not easy to get people who know that they have to watch out when they're um speaking to people but in this case uh Ed Burke felt he was protected because he had an old friend who was uh delving into the same public corruption troughs as as he was what does a verdict like this do through City Hall and the halls of City Hall if you will Alderman um even if you were to maybe perhaps consider something like this um this is oh Ed Brooks coming out of the the courtroom right now we're getting a a visual of that um in other words I guess if this were something that were still a thought among some in city council does this persuade them not to do it you know a lot of people looked up to Ed Burke uh in the city council over the many decades and I think this should send uh a reverberating message that this is the last person you want to look up to um you know it it's not the kind of thing that people should be doing if people are thinking about committing public uh corruption or of public corruption um they better think twice because I think the uh public Integrity unit of the US attorney has really proven here that no matter how great you think you are how you know how tall you stand in any elected body um they can bring you down Alman let's hold on for a second and see if the cameras are close enough to get a comment from edber got okay absolutely let going to the front scene okay yeah we're not going to be able to hear anything so Alderman I guess to Circle back to that point I guess you know quid proquo is one thing um you scratch my back I'll scratch yours that's another thing is it not I mean isn't that kind of how politics work well I think you know when you're looking to make changes in in the city council and ordinances and things like that there there might be ways to go about it that are perfectly legal um you know I can support this ordinance if you support this ordinance and people do that all the time I think what happened here is over the decades Ed Burke and a lot of other Alderman made this personal uh personal profit over public integrity and when people started doing that um they get exposed that that lack of accountability eventually comes out and um they're held accountable and I think this case it probably took a lot longer than people expected you know a lot of us knew that some of this activity was going on not to that same extent but um that that Danny siss got him on both the camera and the audio for but you know a lot of us were pushing back on some of his uh tax appeal uh issues many years ago and trying to convince our colleagues you know more than 26 out of the 50 to act against it was often a very difficult task um I think over the years we were building up on that we were able to push back on some of these issues and expose it more but it also required Mayors who would stand up and say enough is enough and I think the the taunt that mayor Dy showed the theun that Ramy Emanuel showed um was very telling it was basically you know what Ed we're going to be hands off of you if you sort of stay hands off of what we're doing and I think that allowed him to flourish in the position he was in unfortunately you know it um was to the total detriment of taxpayers alderman before we let you go quickly you're writing the headline tomorrow what does it say um longest serving Alderman finally goes down I think um this is this is something that is very surprising for a lot of people but as you were saying before alluding to it should send a strong message to elected officials across the state that um whatever they are doing that's illegal needs to stop all right Alderman Scott wagas thank you very much for your time we appreciate it let's bring Chris Tai back in and Chris I think it it is as you said worthwhile to zoom out just for a second as I was listening to the alderman I remembered when this all went down I mean everyone thought okay wow this is really a big deal involving at Burke and then all of a sudden you're like wait a minute they got another Alderman to wear a wire this is just almost you know it's I guess in a way it's Chicago politics and as even the alderman said maybe many are not surprised but in some ways this was really a a wow moment it was a wow moment Joe and I think they even used that term during this trial that there have been wow moments throughout and in fact that whole way of doing business in Chicago the Chicago way um was really something that Burke's team in particular tried to mute to try to put the breakes on the overuse of that because I think the concern was if the jury was marinating in that kind of thinking it would be easier for the wheels to get greased to get to a guilty verdict now in the end they threw almost the entire book at Burke so who knows if that was uh resonant with those jurors but yes I think the whole mechanism of Chicago politics warts in all was exposed in a way that we have not seen before certainly now we can say just within the last half hour the outcome of this case is historic we have never seen uh somebody with this kind of resume in Chicago found guilty but this statistic that dick Simpson the former Alderman and UIC Professor put to me before this trial began jumped out since 1969 37 members of Chicago city council have been convicted of a crime since 1969 Ed Burke now marks the 38th Joe Chris can you give us a better picture of what happened on the way out there when Ed Brook left where he was in relation to the the podium and does that mean his attorneys are not going to be making a statement great question so he came down an elevator Bank he usually comes out of the elevators down here on the south side of Dirks and he instead came out uh on the North side with as you saw uh on video a moment ago with his attorneys and his family uh in tow uh his attorneys left the building it appears as though we will not be hearing from Ed Burke's legal team today or from the former Alderman himself again some of the outstanding characters that we still might hear from today would be the US attorney members of the prosecution team the jurors or attorneys uh for Pete Andrews and Charles Quay Chris what was the takeaway from legal experts and analysts who watched this closely in particular when it came to the closing arguments because I know the prosecution took hours and hours and at some point it seemed like maybe even the defense said listen we need to cut through some of this and give you the the bottom line of this this really went on a long time when it came to the closings yeah in the end the the prosecution uh presented about a 5H hour closing and then they had a rebuttal at the end that was another 90 minutes or so so six and a half 7 hours of closings just for one side of the courtroom then you had three other sets of lawyers producing their own closing statements so there was as we were talking with Irv the raw tonnage of just stuff that these people had to hear and process and that's before hearing those 300 plus pages of jury instructions so what was asked of these jurors what they consumed there uh really throughout the last 6 weeks but particularly in those closings as you underlined Joe really really do point to their ability to withstand pain to devote time to devote concentration and focus and to your point also the defense teams did try to sort of poke a little fun at the prosecution by saying Hey listen I'm not going to take as long as she did Diane MacArthur is the prosecutor the chief prosecutor um she you know she went on very very long and they said we're not going to do that hoping to earn a little maybe browny points with the jury it's also telling Chris I think that the the jury as impressive as that as they were going through all of this only asked as I understand three questions is that right and one of them was to request another copy of the jury instructions all 300 and something pages of it yes I'm going to be very honest with you Joe if there wasn't a verdict today I don't know what I would have put on the news tonight to even tell you because they were so quiet uh they did yesterday was complete radio silence today up until the 2:00 hour complete radio silence they did have those two questions uh two days ago uh asking one about Ed Berg's dual employment uh is it okay for him to both be a private tax attorney and a public uh city councilman and then there was a question about Amtrak employees and Amtrak fits into this very complex puzzle because Amtrak train lines run underneath the post office which is one of the four schemes chrisis Jim Williams here I have a question for you edberg had a number of supporters who showed up at court to provide some moral support we saw Chris Kennedy the son of the late Senator Robert Kennedy one day uh were any of those folks in court today and did you hear any sounds from anybody when the verdicts were read no Jim uh the the the room was completely and utterly silent Ed Burke uh right before things began had his hands on the table Palms down and then as the jury um verdict was read by the judge not the forers of note uh he kind of put his hands uh below his chin and kind of absorbed it that way the only uh notable faces in that crowd today uh we had heard from uh as you mentioned Mr Kennedy who was here last week we had heard from a couple of other Alderman uh past Alderman who were in the crowd to show their support uh for Burke over this six- week trial but no today it was pretty much um the people who worked on this case for the feds and there was probably a dozen and a half of them the people who weren't the Frontline attorneys and and then the Burke family of course a whole lot of media and US Marshals that was pretty much the bulk of the back of the courtroom today all right thank you Chris we want to add to our coverage today by inviting in former Alderman Roderick Sawyer who just established a political consulting firm to the conversation thank you for being with us and what is your reaction to this verdict well first of all thank you for having me this afternoon the jury has spoken and uh as a lawyer I respect the outcome of the jury um they made a decision that that Burke was guilty and uh he has to live with that and abide by that um I am personally um you know upset that that they came out that way but I again I respect the jury's verdict and I respect the outcome and I'm sure there going to be appeals and other uh post-trial motions that will be going forward that will extend this month's on end uh but again the jury has spoken you said you're personally upset I wonder if you can explain why well on a larger scale uh it does put a a black eye towards alers in the city Chicago um uh I heard the prior statement of 38 now um alers that have been convicted for various crimes um and and that is what I was saying that I'm upset about is just the the perception that Alderman although we work very hard they work very hard they they work eight days a week although it's considered a part-time position but the vast majority of the ERS that are there work every day to make sure their communities are getting what what's necessary what's deserved of them and for this to occur it does set a black eye on the entirety of the of the profession or the elected position yeah we were curious though does this translate now into a new chapter um for the current city Alderman or is this how things were done in previous years I was talking to someone yesterday and talking about the length of time that that Alderman Burke had sat on the city council he was there for most of his adulthood uh he got there in his 20s and stayed 50 plus years uh so he was engaged and in tune to a different type of political activity that was more popular in today is gone by 50 plus years ago that is not acceptable now all right uh here in the 21st century sorry yeah we former Allman rodick Sawyer now a political consultant thank you for joining us we have to cut away to talk to the uh the lawyers now thanks so much yeah we do expect to hear from the US attorneys coming to the podium you're watching these live pictures from the durksen federal building where cameras are ready and waiting to hear from these attorneys we expect to hear them react to the verdict today read just about an hour ago at this point let's listen in good afternoon my name is moris 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 sered 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 for money he tied the giving of 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 casee 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 dedic ation 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 I can entertain 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 analyst and staff that brought it and worked so well with the prosecutors here in the Northern District it's a real Testament to the quality of work um that takes place here can't than them enough and also some of the partners that we had along the way um city of Chicago officer Inspector General uh Inspector General for Amtrak and just a magnificent partnership with the Northern District here thank you okay questions what's you say for the corruption that just continues to come out of City Hall and city government here and historically why this city has such a bad WRA that's a $64,000 Question um so Alman Burke obviously joins a long list of corrupt city council aldermen 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 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' like to think think that public officials out there who are tempted to S 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 Office is out there and we're aggressively pursuing these type of matters Ed Burke was an alder for 50 years before your office brought charges against him what took it so long because this clearly established a pattern of behavior by edber and I think 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 a responsibility of our office together with federal law enforcement to accumulate assemble that off that EV evidence presented to a point where we're satisfied it meets the standards of 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 a particular investigation Mr Pascal are you disappointed in the exageration of Andrew uh we respect the uh verdict of the jury in in all its respects um obviously the jury was instructed to treat each defendant 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 Burke 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 for the maximum sir our sentencing decisions will be made recommendations will be made after the completion of the pr sentence 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 recommendations 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 official have not lived up to their responsibility to conduct honest government and so we're we're always open for business and we're all always all ears for those matters indication of the prosecution's offer of Danny s's non non prosecution agreement do you think that what Danny phes did helped 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 Alin 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 reading to this morning so Madigan is a pending case so I can't comment on that okay I thought as I'm have to W ladies and gentlemen I'll need to wrap it up thank you you thank you you've been listening to Morris Pasqual the ACT us attorney uh sort of summing up the verdicts today saying This was about bribery and extortion at the highest level of Chicago politics said Ed Burke ultimately had his hand out for money and added that the public expects politicians to pursue the common good he Burke betrayed that trust I believe we still have Irv with us do we not okay Irv a lot of questions for you on this let's start with one of the questions that uh I think or one of the points I wanted to make out here is that when the feds come for you they usually get their target I think the federal success rate is somewhere around 90% or more correct oh it's it's more than 90% on jury trials in this building uh uh coupled with uh the numerous amount of Poli of guilty because frankly uh it's my experience in this building when the FBI puts a case together they do a good job they confront the defendant with the evidence and that's exactly what siss was looking at they they they grabbed him they they showed him some evidence and in his best judgment I think he decided it was better to become a witness than to become a defendant in federal court yeah let me ask one more question and then we'll hand it over to Jim and Marie for some of theirs as well but on that soise topic it was interesting one of the reporters asked why did this take so long um and you heard Pasqual say that you know they had their ducks to get in a row and they have to make sure they have this case uh Beyond A Reasonable Doubt which is one of the reasons why the federal success rate is where it is as we just discussed but the other interesting point of this was it worth their while was it worth this deal they cut with siss in order to get Burke and as the reporter said you know you've got one other dirty Alderman who got away with nothing well when you compare the role of siss in the city council versus the role of Ed Burke uh frankly there's no comparison uhu I've said that Ed Burke was more more powerful in this community than Rod bovic uh Ed Burke had total control over the city council he had total control out of what bills got paid but not only that uh he had influence within the Cook County Democratic party uh he's the one who had to endorse uh judicial candidates to put on uh the endorse Democratic ballots tremendous uh Power both uh politically and in a legal sense in his role in the city council nobody I I know of uh and I've been in this city my entire life matches the power that he had uh with respect to both of those propositions and at the same time Irv he had this private law firm and he was seeking business from people clients potential clients who had business before the city council you know uh there's an ethical issue there uh but as the judge instructed the jury there is nothing wrong with Alderman in the city of Chicago having outside employment especially as uh lawyers representing clients uh perhaps that uh principal needs to be relooked at and and revised based upon what has happened with not only him but what Mr Madigan has alleged to have done as uh uh in the general assembly and also doing real estate tax work so uh you know this takes uh hopefully people will take learn the lesson from this case as to what you want our elected officials to do when they're not serving in their elected capacities IR I would also think it's pretty common you heard the US attorneys there saying that they respected the jury's decision on Peter Andrews and leaving it at that is this a situation where um it seems silly to say they're taking what they can get or they're taking the big dog here which is Ed Burke what is that perspective usually that these us attorneys have um when the result is something like that they will always uh make that same comment uh whether you're in state court or you're in any federal court in this country the uh the prosecutor will never ever criticize a jury or a jury's jury's verdict uh despite what they may personally believe they will always say they respect the Judgment of the jury and frankly that frankly that's the right answer in that case Irv there was um a question asked about prison time um and Morris Pasqual was not willing to go there understandably this is something that uh I guess ultimately is out of his control but I guess he could ask for the maximum which was also asked of him and he didn't go near that you think Ed Burke could face 8 to 12 years just on count one well actually he was found guilty on three counts that carry a 20 year maximum each one uh it's my belief that uh no no they will not be consecutive it be concurrent uh but it it just shows that there were three main counts powerful counts that carry a 20-year maximum sentence that're they're so serious uh under federal law uh it's my I totally believe that the US attorney's office will be making a sentencing recommendation but that will be first in writing in their response to the Pres investigation but it'll also be verbally before judge Kendall at the sentencing hearing as well as his attorneys uh will make uh sentencing recommendations based on uh the fact that uh their client is uh he's about to turn 80 years old uh may have health issues uh that you know uh it's not a crime of violence but the US attorney is going to say hey this is public corruption and that serious stuff where do you think that number comes in IR you know I think when you consider the federal sentencing guidelines and and the probation department will compute what those uh numbers are uh it's going to be anywhere from 1 to 20 I suspect it'll be somewhere in the middle and that's why I think the range of 8 to 12 is about where my guess is this judge will end up uh imposing he would have to do 85% of what whatever number that she sets uh and uh typically at sentencing that is when a person typically goes into custody uh uh with a report date to the bureau prison sometime after that the only issue after that Joe is whether or not the appell at court here the seventh circuit will allow him to stay out on bond pending uh the appeal the other issue Morris Pasqual not willing to touch is Mike Madigan because it's a pending matter um you don't have those same restrictions ir What's the message today to Mike Madigan well you know he is uh I'm sure have been uh he and his attorneys have been keeping track of every word that was said in that courtroom what every witness testified to uh I suspect that uh uh his attorneys may want to interview uh the jurors in this case to try to find out what their thoughts are is what evidence they thought was compelling and what evidence was not very compelling uh you know it is a different case there are uh similarities but and dissimilarities but the main uh part of what is in common between the two cases is former Alderman sise it's those tape recordings the same uh some of the same recordings uh but many different because Madigan was a totally separate uh set of recordings that are going to be played in this trial so while the two are somewhat linked uh but there's also some discrepancy and distinctions between the two cases all right B we're going to ask you to stand by we appreciate as always your legal Insight we'll be back with you in just a minute but we do want to reset for those folks who are just joining us right now and let you you know that Ed Burke has been found guilty today on 13 of the 14 charges that he was facing in this case and let's run them down for you right now count one racketeering guilty count two Federal program bribery guilty count three use of an interstate facility to promote bribery and official misconduct that was also guilty use of Interstate facility to promote bribery and official misconduct count four guilty so the what you're seeing on the left there are the number of counts ultimately that he was convicted on seven of them involving bribery one count of racketeering that was the big one that IR Miller just mentioned a minute ago the only not- guilty verdict for Ed Burke was count six which had to do with the Burger King scheme and that was conspiracy to commit extortion because he was found guilty on count five which was attempted extortion not guilty on conspiracy to commit extortion that just gives you an ideal though of just how complicated these charges and the implications and all of the information that this jury had to sift through uh let's check back in once again with Chris Tai who has been covering this trial start to finish Chris you know Joe as you went through all of those uh convictions all those charges and the guilty uh verdicts that came back I couldn't help but think how long it has taken for us to get here not just the six plus week trial not even just the five plus years since the raids occurred both of the gentlemen that you heard speak at the podium in the last 20 minutes uh did not hold that office when this investigation began this is one of those moments in time and there is Ed Burke about 20 minutes ago leaving Dirkson federal building with his family and attorneys in tow uh this is a trial that has taken a very long time it has lasted through several administrations both at the FBI and at the US attorney's office and you know the a lot of talk was um a lot of focus was spent on the batting average of the US attorney's office you know what what do they come in at they always hear if the feds come after you they got you well think about this in the big cases in this building this year alone they have almost now we're talking about the marquee cases here in the ComEd case the feds got guilty verdicts on every count they also got Tim Mapes guilty on every count this was a big win for the US attorneys office today but that Pete Andrews not guilty is an outlier in the US Attorney office batting average and that one by Ed Burke perhaps less so but I think that kind of gives us some context of you know how these us attorneys often leave this building feeling bulletproof Chris I wanted to ask we saw that video um of Ed Brook leaving again and he seemed to have the same I'm calling it a neutral face no no reaction um that we've seen every morning when he's walked into court and it sounds like that was was his reaction today as they read these guilty verdicts can you talk about um what emotion if any you saw from Burke during these six plus weeks uh in the trial and also I know you mentioned his his wife gave him a hug as as these uh verdicts were being read but can you give us a sense of the temperature of any emotion in that courtroom you know that neutral is exactly the right way to frame this Marie he had a Pokerface this whole way through and maybe it's just a byproduct of 50 plus years in public office and being largely Teflon throughout all of that until today of course and he really kept his calm the whole way through there was never really a blip when he would see friends in the audience he'd give them a warm embrace when he'd see his kids and his wife of course it would be very warm and friendly there'd be long breaks during this trial and they would meet out in the hallway and chitchat and move down to a different floor to kind of get out of the media's purview but on the whole I would say he was as you saw him in that video moments ago cool calm and collected Chris quick follow up on the Burke side of things um was there any surprise at all that their defense was as I guess brief as it was were were were some watching this trial expecting more yeah I mean I think when you have four and a half weeks give or take of the prosecution laying out witness after witness now remember there was a five days off because of covid there was Thanksgiving there was um another holiday in there um but yeah they really probably put on I mean the defense team put on Danny ciss and that was essentially it um the prosecution put on 35 Witnesses so yeah it did seem a little lopsided uh but certainly in the end uh it wasn't enough that Danny siss effort was not enough to protect their client today Chris we are going to let you reset for our news coming up at 4:00 Jim Marie we will join you then and in the meantime just a quick recap and historic afternoon at the durksen Federal Building former longtime Alderman Ed Burke found guilty on all but one charge in his corruption and racketeering case back with the latest and much more coming up on the CBS 2 News at 4:00 this has been breaking news from CBS 2 we've got a good

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Length: 77min 35sec (4655 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023