Editor's note: FBI; This Shark has some revealing recordings of the crooks in the Probate Court of Cook County. The Probate judge and GAL did not want to hear them. Wonder why? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Prosecutors play undercover recording of state rep being paid cash bribe
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CAPTIONS
Derrick Smith
Illinois Rep. Derrick Smith leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Monday. (Anthony Souffle, Chicago Tribune /June 2, 2014)
Illinois Rep. Derrick Smith leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Monday. (Anthony Souffle, Chicago Tribune /June 2, 2014)
State Rep. Derrick Smith had been hounded for weeks by a campaign worker intent on bringing him a $7,000 bribe from a day care worker who needed a letter of support to win a state grant.
In secretly recorded conversations, the campaign worker – a felon named Pete who was cooperating with the FBI – had asked Smith repeatedly when he was going to write the letter and how he wanted to receive his kickback. After a campaign contribution was ruled out as too obvious, Pete asked whether a cashier’s check would suffice.
“No, I don’t want no trace of it,” Smith told Pete in one conversation played today for jurors in Smith’s bribery trial.
“Cash?” Pete replied.
“Yeah,” said Smith.
Days later, prosecutors say, Pete met Smith and counted out seven stacks of 10 crisp $100 bills that purportedly came from the day care operator but were actually part of a ruse set up by the FBI. Smith gave $1,000 to another campaign worker and $2,500 to Pete, who had spent months doing grunt campaign work like posting yard signs and fliers for little pay, according to prosecutors.
The recordings being played today are at the heart of the bribery and extortion charges against Smith, who prosecutors allege took the $7,000 kickback during the 2012 primary in exchange for writing a letter of support for a $50,000 state grant that would allow a day care on West Chicago Avenue to expand. The center, while real, was not actually applying for a grant, authorities said.
The recordings depicted a frazzled Smith who was trying to win his first election since his appointment to the legislature a year earlier. Many of the conversations played out over the phone while Smith was either headed to or from Springfield. He expressed disappointment and mistrust of other campaign workers and also frustration over Pete’s continued push for the letter of support, even though he hadn’t given Smith the details about the project.
“This stuff is serious,” Smith told Pete in one conversation. “You can’t just hope you’re right…It’s gotta be perfect, you understand? She needs to write it down.”
Later, Smith was given a draft letter that purportedly was from the day care operator but had actually been written by the FBI. Smith balked at the lack of detail in the draft and sent it back to Pete asking for it to be fleshed out. After a second try, the FBI got it right – Smith’s office sent an email back to the day care saying his signature would be on it soon. “Well done!” the email said.
Jurors today passed around the letter that Smith’s office eventually produced, dated March 1, 2012, and written on his official government letterhead. It extolled the virtues of the day care project, saying it was a valuable asset to the community and employed local workers. Two weeks after the letter was written, the FBI arrested Smith at his West Side home.
FBI Special Agent Bryan Butler testified Monday that soon after Smith was arrested, he said he'd "f---ed up" and told agents he needed to make some extra money to pay his campaign workers and maintain their loyalty.
Also today, lawyers for the Tribune successfully appealed U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman’s previous order barring the release to the media of the transcripts and audio tapes after they had been played in court.
jmeisner@tribune.com
In secretly recorded conversations, the campaign worker – a felon named Pete who was cooperating with the FBI – had asked Smith repeatedly when he was going to write the letter and how he wanted to receive his kickback. After a campaign contribution was ruled out as too obvious, Pete asked whether a cashier’s check would suffice.
“No, I don’t want no trace of it,” Smith told Pete in one conversation played today for jurors in Smith’s bribery trial.
“Yeah,” said Smith.
Days later, prosecutors say, Pete met Smith and counted out seven stacks of 10 crisp $100 bills that purportedly came from the day care operator but were actually part of a ruse set up by the FBI. Smith gave $1,000 to another campaign worker and $2,500 to Pete, who had spent months doing grunt campaign work like posting yard signs and fliers for little pay, according to prosecutors.
The recordings being played today are at the heart of the bribery and extortion charges against Smith, who prosecutors allege took the $7,000 kickback during the 2012 primary in exchange for writing a letter of support for a $50,000 state grant that would allow a day care on West Chicago Avenue to expand. The center, while real, was not actually applying for a grant, authorities said.
The recordings depicted a frazzled Smith who was trying to win his first election since his appointment to the legislature a year earlier. Many of the conversations played out over the phone while Smith was either headed to or from Springfield. He expressed disappointment and mistrust of other campaign workers and also frustration over Pete’s continued push for the letter of support, even though he hadn’t given Smith the details about the project.
“This stuff is serious,” Smith told Pete in one conversation. “You can’t just hope you’re right…It’s gotta be perfect, you understand? She needs to write it down.”
Later, Smith was given a draft letter that purportedly was from the day care operator but had actually been written by the FBI. Smith balked at the lack of detail in the draft and sent it back to Pete asking for it to be fleshed out. After a second try, the FBI got it right – Smith’s office sent an email back to the day care saying his signature would be on it soon. “Well done!” the email said.
Jurors today passed around the letter that Smith’s office eventually produced, dated March 1, 2012, and written on his official government letterhead. It extolled the virtues of the day care project, saying it was a valuable asset to the community and employed local workers. Two weeks after the letter was written, the FBI arrested Smith at his West Side home.
FBI Special Agent Bryan Butler testified Monday that soon after Smith was arrested, he said he'd "f---ed up" and told agents he needed to make some extra money to pay his campaign workers and maintain their loyalty.
Also today, lawyers for the Tribune successfully appealed U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman’s previous order barring the release to the media of the transcripts and audio tapes after they had been played in court.
jmeisner@tribune.com
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