Jurors in the upcoming racketeering trial of former 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke are going to hear a lot of names, including fellow aldermen, city commissioners, developers, architects and restaurant franchisees.
But one name they will not hear: Donald Trump.
That’s because prosecutors have agreed to redact Trump’s name from an undercover recording where Burke talked about how his private law firm had won property tax breaks for Trump’s downtown Chicago skyscraper.
After prosecutors announced the decision at a pretrial hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall asked how exactly they planned to remove Trump’s name, given his notoriety.
“How do you anonymize a reference to Trump? I mean, what are you going to say?” Kendall asked.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker said her team will just edit the clip so instead of Trump’s name, “there will be silence.”
The decision came after Burke’s legal team argued in a court filing that introducing Trump’s name would prejudice the jury because the former president is “despised by a significant percentage of the population.”
“Mr. Burke’s legal work for (Trump) could cause many jurors to have an unfavorable impression of Mr. Burke and could create significant bias against him,” the defense motion stated. Telling jurors about the Burke-Trump association is “fraught with the likelihood of unfair prejudice,” the motion argued.
Burke, 79, was originally charged in a criminal complaint in January 2019, weeks after the FBI raided his City Hall office suite. He was indicted four months later on 14 counts including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
The 59-page indictment outlined a series of schemes in which Burke allegedly tried to muscle developers into hiring his law firm, Klafter & Burke, to appeal their property taxes. Among the projects Burke tried to capitalize on was the massive $800 million renovation of the Old Post Office in the West Loop, according to the charges.
Also charged was Burke’s longtime aide, Peter Andrews, who was accused of assisting the alderman in attempting to shake down two business owners seeking to renovate a Burger King restaurant in the 14th Ward.
The indictment also accused developer Charles Cui of hiring Burke’s law firm in exchange for the alderman’s help with a sign permit and financing deal for a project in the Portage Park neighborhood.
All three have pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
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In addition to the Trump issue, Kendall ruled Wednesday on a number of other evidentiary disputes. Over the objections of the defense, Kendall said prosecutors can play a wiretapped call where Burke talked about putting in a “good word” for the son of his longtime friend, ex-Ald. Terry Gabinski, who was applying to be a Chicago police officer.
Though there was nothing illegal about the call, the indictment charges Burke with threatening officials at the Field Museum after Gabinski’s daughter was passed over for an internship there.
Lawyers for Andrews, meanwhile, argued strenuously to keep out part of an audio recording made by two FBI agents who confronted Andrews at his door in late 2018.
After the agents asked about “the alderman’s” involvement with Burger King franchisees, Andrews, who had worked as Burke’s 14th Ward aide for decades, allegedly asked, “What alderman?”
“You seem emotional, sir,” one of the agents allegedly said. According to prosecutors, Andrews then started to stutter, saying, “I, I, I, I.....” After a little more back and forth, Andrews cut off the interview.
Kendall ruled that the recording can be admitted as evidence and the agents can testify about Andrews’ “emotional” state, though prosecutors are not allowed to ask them whether they believed Andrews was lying.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
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