Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Friday, Nov 30, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

Federal agents mysteriously raided a former Trump attorney’s office: what we know - Ed Burke represented Trump on property tax issues between 2006 and 2018

* Experienced in-town reporter…

The national media narrative is interesting. We have it on multiple sources that today's FBI raid is not related to the work Burke did for Trump. Purely focused on his role as alderman and chair of City Council's Finance Committee https://t.co/cNxvyG0edW

— Paris Schutz (@paschutz) November 29, 2018

* Tribune…

Nationally, media outlets and websites were quick to note that Burke once served as the attorney who appealed property taxes on behalf of President Donald Trump’s Chicago tower before cutting those ties earlier this year. And the raids on Burke’s office came on the same day the president’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump project in Moscow as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The timing of that development and the raid on Burke’s offices led to rampant speculation that the searches were related to work Burke’s law firm did for Trump. The Burke investigation, however, was being conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, not Mueller’s office, said Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Lausch.

Authorities did not search Burke’s law office Thursday, a law enforcement source told the Chicago Tribune. The investigation involves recent allegations and no arrests were made or are imminent, according to the source.

* Fran…

“For the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office to be executing search warrants at his government offices, that had to be approved at a very high level of the Department of Justice in Washington. This is not something you do on a notion,” [mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot, a Burke nemesis and former federal prosecutor] said.

“A magistrate judge had to sign off on the particulars of the search warrant to show there was a credible allegation that a federal crime was committed and that evidence of that federal crime would be found in these locations. That means this is a very, very serious matter.”

Lightfoot predicted that there would be “a very bare bones charging document, probably a criminal complaint” issued relatively soon. A search warrant laying out the probable cause and an inventory of items taken, is likely to come later after all of it is presented to a grand jury, she said.

“It doesn’t always happen that way. … Sometimes search warrants are issued and nobody gets charged. But it would surprise me if that happened here,” she said.

“This is a very high-profile elected official. A search of his government offices very close to an election, which they would be mindful of and the consequences of that. This is not a nothing. This is a very serious action.”

It does look very serious, but Dorothy Brown has been under federal investigation for years and nothing has ever happened to her, even after the G seized her mobile phone three years ago.

It’s the way the feds went about it that makes me so curious. This was a very public raid. They didn’t go the quiet subpoena route like they did in 2012, when a grand jury subpoenaed records from Burke. This time, they made their presence known. When they seized Brown’s phone, they just quietly showed up at her home with a warrant. They didn’t put brown paper over her office windows and dispatch a legion of federales in full view of reporters.

* More…

[Mayor Rahm Emanuel] said City Hall had not received any subpoenas in connection with the FBI raid of Burke’s finance committee and 14th Ward offices.

* I-Team…

Burke has been in office for nearly 50 years and is the powerful chairman of the Finance Committee, which oversees the administration of the $100 million Workers Compensation Fund for city workers injured on the job.

In 2012, the City Inspector General sought to review the records, but was rebuffed by Burke. The Legislative Inspector General, which oversees the City Council, then tried to intervene. […]

The statute of limitations for any corruption charges that could stem from that investigation is five years. But a source familiar with these kinds of cases said if the feds can show in an investigation that there are continuing crimes, the statute runs from the last crime.

* More…

Thursday’s federal search warrants also come a few months after a federal lawsuit was filed in Chicago challenging the legality of Burke’s control of city workers’ compensation and alleging that the South Side alderman commands a dozens-strong patronage army under the cover of his Finance Committee. The suit, filed by several former and injured city employees, claims that Burke falsifies his committee budget, understates his staff size and hides information from the public. According to an amended complaint filed this month, Burke allegedly hires unqualified employees who have “worked as a dog groomer, dog walker, hairstylist, waitress, and other jobs unrelated to the administration of Workers’ Compensation.”

Oddly, there was a scheduled status hearing on the lawsuit in federal court at the same time the raids were underway in Ald. Burke’s City Hall and ward offices. Attorney Michael Greco, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, said he was “curious about the document raids” but had no information on them or comment.

* But…

At one point an agent who identified himself as FBI removed an odd fluorescent green rod from his vehicle and took it inside. A sign in the window was marked Chicago Police Narcotics Task Force.

What?

I did a quick Google search and couldn’t find anything. Anybody know what that green rod might be?

* Timing…

The raids happened as Burke’s wife, Ann Burke, was being sworn in for another term on the Illinois Supreme Court. Mariotti thinks that is not mere coincidence. […]

“What I think is interesting is the timing of this was the day that his wife was getting sworn in. It seems like a very good day to conduct a search if you want to be able to talk with (Burke’s) employees without him being around.”

* More on that…

As FBI agents rummaged through his offices, the alderman attended a luncheon at the Chicago Yacht Club celebrating his wife, Anne Burke, who on Thursday was sworn into her second 10-year term on the Illinois Supreme Court.

* Uh-oh…

The Mendoza campaign may have taken down the page but here’s a screengrab from earlier. “She calls fellow Democrats Ed Burke…and Mike Madigan political mentors…” pic.twitter.com/iKtDAi16uR

— Tahman Bradley (@tahmanbradley) November 29, 2018

* Lucky for her, she’s leaving town next week…

Susana Mendoza is taking a long-planned family vacation next week. A source close to the campaign says Mendoza and her husband didn’t have the heart to cancel the trip they planned with their 6-year-old son—a trip that was in the works long before Mendoza thought she’d be running for mayor.

“Long-planned.” (Update: I was shown a receipt that clearly indicates she booked that trip months ago. Also, the link has been restored to her website.)

* Other stuff…

* Ald. Ed Burke’s career includes nearly half a century on Chicago City Council

* Ed Burke’s political rivals eager to put on their dancing shoes

* Burke raid follow-up: He’ll cooperate with probe

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*** UPDATED x1 - ITLA responds *** Rauner blasts legislators for “major giveaway to the trial lawyers”

Friday, Nov 30, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* WBEZ…

In addressing reporters Thursday, Rauner also spoke out against some pieces of legislation that lawmakers passed over Rauner’s vetoes. In particular, he singled out a bill that would raise the caps on legal payouts for anyone who sues the state.

“Now, the incentive for the trial bar, the plaintiffs bar, to go look for problems, challenge, try to find problems, sue — the risk-reward for them to spend some time proactively suing now that the balance is on the side of, ‘Yeah, go ahead and sue.’”

The push to raise the limit from $100,000 to $2 million came after 11 families sued the state for neglect in the deaths of their loved ones at the Quincy veterans’ home who died during a 2015 Legionnaires’ outbreak. A twelfth lawsuit — filed earlier this year — stemmed from a 2017 Legionnaires’ death at the same home.

* SJ-R…

“This is going to be a massive invitation for lawsuits,” Rauner said. “Our taxpayers could be on the hook for many millions, hundreds of millions of dollars.” […]

Rauner said the bill was “falsely sold as a Quincy veterans bill” even though it will apply to all lawsuits filed in the Court of Claims.

“I view this as a major sop, a major giveaway to the trial lawyers who are major funders of many legislators’ campaigns,” he said.

He also said the General Assembly should’ve just passed stand-alone legislation that specifically applied to the Quincy veterans home.

*** UPDATE *** Tim McLean at the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association…

Let’s re-visit the outgoing governor’s record on the handling of the Legionnaire’s crises that occurred at the Quincy Veteran’s Home, which caused 14 unnecessary deaths and sickened 70 other residents and staff:

Delay—his administration delayed notification of the outbreak, which denied families access to potential life-saving information about the well-being of their loved ones, and possibly contributed to the illness and death toll.
Deny—The governor repeatedly claimed that “our administration did everything right,” despite documented evidence from industry experts and his own staff that the claim is untrue.
Deflect—The governor tried to blame this tragedy on the weather, on a local river, and on a former director that is now a U.S. Senator from the opposing party.
Veto—instead of finally seizing the opportunity to begin the healing process for the victims’ families, Rauner AV’d this bill, which was a product of bi-partisan agreement with all stakeholders.

The Governor has clearly learned nothing over the four years of his massively failed tenure, and his sour grapes press conference yesterday only further solidifies his dissonance from voters, and the bi-partisan supermajorities that overrode his reckless veto. It was clear from the outset to all parties that this legislation was prompted by the tragedies in Quincy, but would be applicable to claims brought by other victims as well; that issue was fully vetted in negotiations, and was made abundantly clear in floor debate. If the governor felt so strongly that it should have applied only to the Quincy tragedy, why did his AV not reflect that position?

The truth is that Illinois was an outlier (tied for the lowest among all states) for damage caps at the Court of Claims, and the families of our heroes in Quincy would have been denied access to justice as a result of that antiquated law–as would future victims of the state’s negligence. This law rectifies that issue, and gives Illinoisans a reasonable opportunity to pursue justice when they are harmed. Remember, seventeen (over 1/3) of states have no cap at all.

This month, the voters of Illinois roundly rejected Governor Rauner’s slash-and-burn, political hackery approach to governing with a 15-point defeat. Instead of holding rambling press conferences and vilifying his perceived political enemies (which proved to be a failed approach for 4 years), the governor should embark on an apology tour with victims’ families.