Crime & Law

Former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke Released From Federal Prison After 9 Months Following Corruption Convictions

Former Ald. Ed Burke has been released from federal prison, less than 10 months after he began serving a two-year sentence following his convictions in his landmark corruption trial.

Officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday confirmed that Burke, 81, had been transferred from the Federal Correctional Institution in Thomson, Illinois where he’d been serving his sentence to community confinement run by the bureau’s Chicago Residential Reentry Management office.

“Community confinement means the individual is in either home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center (RRC, or halfway house),” the bureau said in a statement. “Mr. Burke’s projected release date from custody is February 20, 2026.”

Burke had reported to the Thomson facility last September, where he was identified as federal inmate No. 53698-424. The Chicago Tribune first reported news of Burke’s transfer Tuesday morning.

Burke’s defense attorney Charles Sklarsky did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

A federal jury convicted Burke in late 2023 on one count of racketeering, two counts of federal program bribery, two counts of attempted extortion and eight counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.

The 38th member of the Chicago City Council to be convicted of a crime since 1968, Burke repeatedly — and brazenly — used his powerful position at City Hall to force those doing business with the city to hire his private law firm, formerly known as Klafter & Burke.

The longest serving member of the Chicago City Council in history, Burke has a legacy that is now indelibly tarnished, his corrupt conduct serving to tar once again the city he proclaimed to love.

Burke’s guilty verdicts ensured his turns of phrase captured on the wiretaps and hidden recordings made by disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward) will be enshrined as part of Chicago’s long history of political corruption.

“So, did we, uh, land the tuna?” Burke asked Solis. “If we land the tuna there certainly will be a day of accounting, you can count on that.”

Burke wasn’t done.

“If we’re not signed up, we’re not going to do heavy lifting,” Burke said. “The cash register has not rung yet.”

Had he been acquitted, Burke would have been remembered for the role he played in leading a group of White City Council members who worked to stymie Chicago’s first Black chief executive, Mayor Harold Washington, touching off what came to be known as Council Wars in the 1980s.

But by convicting Burke of racketeering, a charge usually brought against members of the mob or street gangs, the jury determined that Burke operated at City Hall like a mafia don, shaking down those who needed or desired an official action from their elected leaders.

“I’m sorry to see that career end like this,” Burke said at his June 2024 sentencing hearing, adding that the blame for that end “is mine and mine alone.”

“I regret the pain and sorrow I have caused my dear friends and family,” he said.

During the six-week trial, prosecutors detailed Burke’s involvement in four criminal schemes, depicting the former alderperson as “thoroughly corrupt,” three involving his side hustle as a property tax attorney.

He was convicted of orchestrating all four schemes.

The most elaborate scheme involved the Old Post Office, the massive building that straddles the Eisenhower Expressway at the edge of the Loop. Vacant for nearly 25 years after the departure of the U.S. Postal Service, the landmark’s fortunes began to reverse when the building was purchased by New York-based 601 West Companies, which planned to spend $800 million to renovate the massive structure into offices.

But to make that financially possible, the developers needed significant help from City Hall, which meant they needed the backing of Burke, the chair of the powerful Finance Committee, and Solis, the chair of the Zoning Committee.

The jury convicted Burke, working with former Chicago Ald.-turned government-mole Danny Solis, whose ward included the Old Post Office, of holding up that assistance in an attempt to force the Old Post Office developer to hire Burke’s private law firm, which specialized in getting companies breaks on their property taxes by appealing to county officials.

Burke pledged to kick back a portion of the spoils to Solis in return for his approval of an $18 million subsidy and a tax break worth $100 million, prosecutors alleged.

Solis agreed to work as a government informant after he was accused by federal agents of accepting sex acts, Viagra, free weekend use of an Indiana farm once owned by Oprah Winfrey and a steady stream of campaign contributions in return for City Council actions, as first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Solis recorded hundreds of hours of conversations as part of investigations against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Burke and testified against both of his former friends and colleagues.

Federal prosecutors had asked that Burke be sentenced to 10 years in prison, while his defense team asked for home confinement, claiming at the time that any prison term would amount to a death sentence for the former alderperson.

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall at the time said the crimes that Burke was convicted of threaten the “fragility of our democracy.” But she added she was moved by Burke’s long history of “very personal acts that are not anything to do with authority or public office” that helped average Chicagoans, who could offer him nothing in return.

The judge also struck a despairing note about Chicago’s deeply entrenched culture of political corruption.

“I don’t know how to impress upon those who serve the public that what they are sacrificing might not simply be their own lives,” Kendall said. “They’re a part of this erosion. Part of this chipping away at our democracy.”

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