Danny Solis, the longtime City Council member who famously turned on powerful Chicago politicians by wearing a wire for the FBI, has taken the witness stand in the corruption trial of former Ald. Edward M. Burke.
Burke’s defense attorneys made good Tuesday on their promise to call Solis to testify, forcing him out into the open nearly five years after the Chicago Sun-Times revealed his cooperation with the feds in January 2019.
The defense attorneys have predicted they will spend hours questioning Solis about the recordings he made, labeling the famous government mole a potentially “hostile” witness.
Earlier Tuesday, prosecutors rested their long-awaited case against Burke. The feds called 36 witnesses over 16 days of testimony — and played roughly 100 recordings — as they sought to convince jurors that Burke was “a bribe taker” and “an extortionist.”
Prosecutors chose not to put Solis on the stand themselves, instead summoning FBI agents to share with jurors the secret recordings he’d made of Burke. Still, they’ve previously described Solis’ cooperation as “extraordinary” and “singular.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu in 2022 called Solis one of Chicago’s “most significant cooperators in the last several decades.” He also helped the feds build a separate indictment against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Meanwhile, Burke’s attorney in opening statements last month called Solis “Exhibit A in the world of people who are corrupt and who are untruthful.”
Now Solis is on the witness stand in a public courtroom on the 25th floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. He is the third high-profile government mole to take the stand amid an unusual run of public corruption trials in Chicago this year. Former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez and former state Sen. Terry Link also testified in the last nine months.
Like Marquez and Link, Solis agreed to cooperate in hopes of avoiding prison. In fact, Solis struck a deal that could even help him avoid a criminal conviction. He only agreed to work with the FBI after two agents showed up at his home on June 1, 2016, and shared recordings documenting his own alleged wrongdoing.
A bombshell 2016 FBI affidavit first obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times alleged that Solis had received “a steady flow of personal benefits” from people for whom he had taken or offered official action. The benefits allegedly included Viagra, prostitution services, the use of a multi-million dollar farm and campaign contributions.
Solis is now formally charged with bribery, but the feds are expected to seek dismissal of that charge if he holds up his end of a deferred-prosecution agreement due to end in April 2025.
Solis represented Chicago’s 25th Ward from 1996 until 2019. Then-Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Solis to the seat in 1996 to replace Ambrosio Medrano, another disgraced City Council member. Solis eventually became chairman of the Council’s zoning committee.
Even though Burke hadn’t originally been targeted by the FBI when agents first enlisted Solis, Solis’ powerful Council post put him in a prime position. Burke wound up approaching Solis at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to recommend a wrecking company for the renovation of Chicago’s Old Post Office, court records show.
That apparently got the feds’ attention. And while Solis is only now taking the witness stand, the recordings he wound up making of Burke have already taken center stage in Burke’s trial. They’ve given jurors a behind-the-scenes look at Burke’s dealings at City Hall.
Burke is charged with racketeering, bribery and extortion for allegedly trying to strongarm business for his private law firm out of developers like those who renovated the massive Old Post Office straddling the Eisenhower Expressway.
In an Aug. 26, 2016, phone call discussing the Old Post Office developers, Burke was recorded telling Solis to “recommend the good firm of Klafter & Burke to do the tax work … and we can certainly talk about a marketing arrangement for you.”
In a video-recorded meeting with Burke the next month, Solis told Burke he was interested in that “marketing piece” that Burke had mentioned.
“I’m of the belief that if you get help from somebody to get some work, that they’re entitled to share in it,” Burke replied.
In a recorded meeting in December 2016, Burke explained to Solis that Old Post Office developer Harry Skydell, who is Jewish, had been having trouble with Amtrak.
“Jews are Jews, and they’ll deal with Jews to the exclusion of everybody else … unless there’s a reason for them to use a Christian,” said Burke, who is Roman Catholic.
Burke then went on to explain that he’d helped make Amtrak board member Jeff Moreland’s daughter a judge.
But in January 2017, Burke had become frustrated that he hadn’t heard anything about being hired by Skydell’s firm. Making a downward motion with his right hand, Burke told Solis, “The cash register has not rung yet.”
Then he smiled.
Solis had a chat with Skydell in May 2017, in which he encouraged Skydell to hire Burke’s firm. Skydell agreed to give Burke a call. Solis followed up to give Burke the “good news.”
“Did we land … the tuna?” Burke famously asked.
Burke later added, “If we land the tuna, there certainly will be a day of accounting, you can count on that.”
Months later, the Old Post Office developers realized the city planned to demolish the building’s broken-down western plaza. So they went to City Hall — and to finance chairman Burke — hoping to tap into $20 million in tax-increment financing money.
“I’m not very fond of the way they’ve conducted themselves up until this point,” Burke told Solis. “And as far as I’m concerned, they can go f--- themselves.”
But Skydell’s firm eventually agreed to hire Burke’s firm to help with property tax appeals at the Sullivan Center Offices at State and Madison. That was in August 2018.
The next month, Burke moved for the City Council to pass the developers’ TIF proposal. And Burke voted in favor of it.