* Tribune…

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday it’s “not possible” that City Hall’s Law Department is part of the cover-up culture he’s acknowledged exists at the Chicago Police Department — a day after a federal judge ruled that a city lawyer intentionally concealed evidence in a trial over a fatal Chicago police shooting.

Emanuel also said it’s not necessary for the U.S. Department of Justice to add the Law Department to its investigation into the Police Department’s use of excessive force. And the mayor gave a vote of confidence to his top attorney, saying Stephen Patton would ensure the city’s legal team is operating “at the highest level that the public should expect.”

The mayor’s defense of Patton, a confidant, comes as a federal judge has cited and rebuked five city attorneys within the last year for withholding evidence in two separate police misconduct cases. In the most recent of those rulings Monday, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang faulted lax training and oversight at Patton’s department for hampering the production of Police Department records when officers are accused of misconduct. […]

“There is zero tolerance for not only violating the public trust, but your professional standards and there will be no place for that,” Emanuel said. “Once the decision was made, the lawyer and the city parted ways.”

“Zero tolerance”? Then how come Jordan Marsh was on the law department payroll until just the other day? He admitted to the cover-up in September, for crying out loud, and we’ve known about this story for almost a year.

Zero tolerance for what, exactly?

[Fixed some coding problems which deleted some of my words.]