[Chicago Tribune] One employee told federal investigators that the “going rate” to buy a job in Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office was $10,000, to be paid to her personal bagman.Another said in an FBI interview it was well-known that showering gifts on Brown could earn you a promotion, citing a trip Brown took to India that was partially paid for by relatives of one of her top employees.
Financial records appeared to back up the claims, including transactions showing the alleged bagman — who is also a clerk’s office employee — paid $40,000 directly to Brown and a company she controlled. The clerk later deposited $30,000 of those funds into her campaign war chest.
Those allegations are among several startling new details revealed by federal prosecutors in a court filing in the pending charges against Beena Patel, one of Brown’s former aides whose relative helped fund the India trip in 2013.