Federal prosecutors say ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke should be sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally wielding his considerable clout to strong-arm developers and threaten one of Chicago’s cultural icons for his own benefit.
That would amount to one of the harshest public corruption sentences handed down in the city’s federal court in the last decade. Burke turned 80 a week after his conviction last December.
“He abused and exploited his office by pursuing his own personal and financial interests over a course of years,” prosecutors wrote in a 51-page court memo Monday. “Again and again, Burke used his significant political power to solicit and receive bribes from entities with business before the City of Chicago — all so he could obtain legal business for his private law firm.”
Meanwhile, Burke’s lawyers are asking a judge to give him no prison time, which they say would “be a powerful and just expression of mercy for an 80-year-old man in the twilight of his life who has given so much of himself to so many and for so many years.”
Among those who wrote letters supporting Burke are 38th Ward Ald. Nicholas Sposato, former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, former Illinois first lady Jayne Carr Thompson and former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
It’s been more than five years since the feds raided Burke’s offices before eventually charging him with racketeering. Now, Chicago’s longest-serving City Council member is two weeks away from his sentencing hearing June 24.
Burke's attorneys are seeking a new trial or an acquittal in the case, arguing the conviction hinged on a definition of "personal gain" that the defense argues was improperly applied.
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The U.S. Attorney's Office rejected that argument, saying that the court had rejected it during the trial and that it shouldn't be grounds for a new trial or a reversal of the conviction. A ruling is still pending on that issue.
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