Posted on 10/29/2019 1:20:17 AM PDT by texas booster
State Rep. Luis Arroyo stood outside a Highland Park restaurant last August, looked an Illinois senator in the eye and assured him, “Whatever you tell me … stays between you and me.”
Then, hoping to move sweepstakes gaming legislation forward in Springfield, Arroyo gave the lawmaker a nudge by telling him, “We could put you on a contract. … Tell me what you need.” Weeks later, Arroyo allegedly gave the senator the first of what he promised would become monthly payments of $2,500.
“This is the jackpot,” Arroyo allegedly boasted as he handed over the check.
Trouble is, the feds were listening as Arroyo cut his deal. He was talking into a wire worn by the senator. And now, the Illinois House of Representatives’ assistant majority leader has been hit with a federal bribery charge.
Not only that, but the 13-page criminal complaint unsealed Monday against Arroyo reveals the on-and-off cooperation with the FBI of the state senator — who wore a wire on Arroyo in hopes of landing a reduced sentence for filing false income tax returns. A source identified that lawmaker as Sen. Terry Link, D-Vernon Hills, a chief architect of the gambling package that cleared Springfield earlier this year.
It all came to light as legislators gathered in Springfield for the start of the fall veto session Monday, where House Speaker Michael Madigan promised to begin proceedings to force Arroyo out of office if he refuses to resign. House Republicans also filed a petition Monday to form a committee to investigate the allegations.
Link could not be reached for comment Monday by phone or at an address listed in Indian Creek. U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Joseph Fitzpatrick said Arroyo was arrested Friday morning and released later that afternoon with the understanding he would appear in court Monday morning at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
He did so, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez released Arroyo on an unsecured $10,000 bond. Arroyo later left the courthouse muttering “no comment” to reporters before hopping into a waiting car. He ignored questions about whether he would leave office voluntarily.
The revelation of Link’s cooperation adds new intrigue to an aggressive federal campaign against public corruption that went public late in 2018 when the FBI famously raided the City Hall office of Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), who has since been charged with racketeering. In January, the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that then-Ald. Danny Solis (25th) had cooperated with the feds and worn a wire on Burke.
There is no end to the corruption in Chicago, or in any large city that has been run under a single party for decades.
Hope that they can find the emails between him and the companies that hired him to bribe other state senators.
Five paragraphs in to find party affiliation.
Corruption? Bribes? In CHICAGO, of all places?? I’m shocked... SHOCKED!
He was appointed to office in 2006. Couldn’t find who he was appointed by. How many Chitcago pol’s have gone to jail?
It is also routinely rewritten and erased.
Sounds like a book I once read ...
Is anyone of the pols in Illinois honest?
Has anyone of them even put in a hard days work or have they been nursed off of the federal tit all of their lives?
If they’d worn MAGA hats, put him on a burro, draped a rope around his neck and sprinkled a little bleach on his coat-—he might have rode away a free man!
In CHICAGO?? Surely NOT! /s
Monthly payments of $2500. Meh! That’s peanuts compared to what goes on in DC.
Depending on the deal, that would be a weekly or even daily payment amount in DC.
Queue the Claude Rains photo from Casa Blanca.
Yep that is why Chicago property taxes were raised 40% last year. You heard it, 40%. So a half million dollar unit was paying $10K per year is now paying $14K. Thats everyone in Chicago who owns property. And by the way, its no where close to balancing the budget. And Chicago had the highest property taxes in the country before the increase.
Who do you have to piss off to be targeted by the feds for a wire in a system that is heavily corrupt.
Do politicians in Illinois get to choose which prison will house them for their sentence?
The Bureau of Prisons must have a special Illinois Cell Block.
....zing...
that will leave a mark
....was meant to......
“Five paragraphs in to find party affiliation.”
To be fair, this is a local paper and issue, and everyone over the age of five in Illinois reading the article would simply assume that this was a Dem. it probably didn’t even occur to the reporter to state the obvious.
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