In a town with a long history of corruption and secret government moles, federal prosecutors have described former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis as one of the “most significant cooperators in the last several decades.”
They’ve called his work “singular” and “truly extraordinary.”
But whether Solis will be called to the witness stand amid a remarkable run of public corruption trials at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse apparently remains to be seen — at least in the eyes of defense attorneys for ex-Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke.
Ahead of a Thursday hearing in the case before U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, lawyers representing Burke and his two co-defendants on Wednesday proposed a set of pretrial deadlines for their nearing Nov. 6 trial.
They wrote that each side was able to reach an agreement on some deadlines, but not all. Among the deadlines not agreed to was one by which prosecutors would “disclose if Danny Solis will be called as a witness.”
Defense attorneys have suggested that prosecutors make that disclosure by Aug. 1 — in less than two weeks.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Defense attorneys in the case did not immediately respond to messages. More details could be revealed during Thursday’s court hearing, though.
Solis’ appearance on a witness stand in federal court would surely be dramatic. And it would follow testimony this year from other key cooperators.
Fidel Marquez, the former ComEd executive who made secret recordings of his friends and colleagues for the FBI, faced a blistering cross-examination during this year’s trial of four former ComEd officials and lobbyists. Those four now face significant prison time after being convicted of a conspiracy to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Former state Sen. Terry Link, who wore a wire on then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo in 2019, also testified last month in the bribery trial of businessman James T. Weiss. While Link’s testimony was not as dramatic as Marquez’s, it was still notable because Link had once lied to the public about being a federal informant.
Solis’ testimony would likely be far more salacious than that of Marquez or Link. Burke’s lawyers are also surely eager to confront the man at the center of Burke’s corruption case.
The Chicago Sun-Times first revealed Solis’ cooperation with federal investigators in January 2019. He had agreed to cooperate — recording Burke, Madigan and others — after investigators confronted him in 2016 with evidence of his own wrongdoing.
A 2016 FBI affidavit first obtained by the Sun-Times alleged that Solis 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.
Still, the later undercover work by Solis at the behest of the federal government helped prosecutors build their blockbuster indictments against Burke and Madigan. 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.
A similar arrangement led earlier this week to the dismissal of a bribery charge once leveled against ComEd, which had entered into a similar three-year deal.
Burke, who left office in May after a record 54 years on the City Council, faces trial in less than four months on a racketeering indictment handed up in May 2019. He is accused of using his seat to steer business to his private law firm amid schemes that involved the Old Post Office, a Burger King at 41st Street and Pulaski Road, and a redevelopment project on the Northwest Side.
Madigan, who left office in early 2021, faces trial on his own racketeering indictment in April.
