Federal jurors considering the bribery case against Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III have already seen him on video socializing with fellow Sen. Martin Sandoval and red-light camera executive Omar Maani at fancy steakhouses in the city and the suburbs.
But Friday, prosecutors showed jurors evidence of Jones’ more private side, revealing late-night text messages the senator, who was 41 at the time, sent to a former intern who was 23. The intern worked for Jones in 2014 and 2018.
“I want to hang out with u,” Jones told him in a text message shortly after 10 p.m. on July 6, 2019.
The intern, Christopher Katz, took the witness stand Friday in Jones’ trial. Though Katz initially downplayed his relationship with Jones, jurors saw text messages between the two that went late into that night.
The exchange took place a little more than a week before Jones asked Maani to find Katz a job. Jones, a South Side Democrat, had been in office since 2009.
Katz sent a follow-up text to Jones at 10:14 p.m. on July 6, 2019. He told the senator he “might be going to club sky11 tonight.”
Katz explained in court Friday that it’s “a gentleman’s club.”
“A strip club?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri asked him.
“Yes,” Katz testified.
The text messages between Jones and Katz continued into the early morning of July 7, 2019, with Katz asking Jones to send him $20 to cover the entry fee at the club.
“I’m still here at sky11,” Katz texts at one point.
“I want to see u after,” Jones responded.
Katz told Jones to “come to the club.”
In the courtroom Friday, Kolluri asked Katz, “Have you ever invited an employer to a strip club with you?”
“No,” Katz told the jury.
Jones tried to help Katz get a job at Roseland Community Hospital, according to Katz’s testimony. Eventually, Jones connected Katz with Maani.
“Lol let me know when you get a call,” Jones wrote in a text message to Katz on July 25, 2019.
The senator added, “And when you do get the job, I wanna go to steak 48!!!”
Jones’ trial is nearing its end, with prosecutors saying they could rest as soon as Monday. The feds say Jones agreed to protect Maani in the Illinois Senate in exchange for $5,000 and a job for Katz. Jones filed a bill in February 2019 that could have prompted a statewide study of red-light cameras, and Maani saw it as bad for business.
The alleged deal arose over two dinners between Jones and Maani at the downtown Chicago steakhouse Steak 48. The first took place July 17, 2019, and the second took place Aug. 8, 2019. Jurors have heard Jones rave over the food there in multiple FBI video recordings, including one featuring Sandoval, who died in 2020.
The recordings were made by Maani, a man who’s admitted bribing several officials around suburban Chicago. The FBI approached him in January 2018, and he agreed to wear a wire. FBI Special Agent Kelly Shanahan testified later Friday that Maani landed on the feds’ radar in the middle of 2017.
Eventually, Maani struck a deal with the feds that helped him escape even a conviction.
Prosecutors filed charges against Jones in September 2022 using a document known as an information, which is typically a sign a defendant intends to plead guilty. Had Jones done so, the evidence revealed Friday about Jones’ relationship with Katz might never have surfaced.
During one dinner, Jones told Maani his “main thing” was “take care of my intern — that’s it.” Maani later told Jones he’d help Katz “100%.”
Then Maani added, “And like I said before, if you could just help me out with the, ah, the study to make it to Chicago.”
“You’re good,” Jones told him.
Prosecutors say Maani paid Katz $1,800 even though Katz did no work for him. Kolluri asked Katz about it Friday.
“Did Mr. Maani end up giving you a job?” the prosecutor asked.
Katz said he did.
“And did you receive payments for those jobs?” Kolluri asked.
“I did,” Katz testified.
Eventually, Kolluri asked, “and did you do any work for Omar Maani during that time?”
“No,” Katz said.