Late last year came news that the FBI raided the office of Alderman Ed Burke, taking boxes and boxes of records. Burke, who is in his fiftieth year in office as an alderman, is widely regarded as the most powerful member of the City Council, a power who has outlasted every mayor, quietly running things while the more visible mayor takes the brickbats.Now comes shocking news that another powerful member of the Chicago City Council, Alderman Danny Solis (who is retiring – gee, I wonder why!) has been wearing a wire for the feds for two years.
The FBI secretly recorded Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan trying to get business for his private law firm from a developer brought to him by Ald. Danny Solis, who was weighing the developer's request to build a hotel in Chinatown, according to a federal court affidavit obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The affidavit makes clear for the first time that the federal investigation that has snared powerful Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke extends beyond City Hall and into the Illinois statehouse.