A lying senator or the ‘Dirksen Two Step’? Jury considering case against Sen. Emil Jones III

A federal prosecutor told jurors Monday that a “calm, cool, collected” Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III lied to them under oath when he testified in his own defense last week — and “had an answer for almost everything.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri argued that Jones was caught lying when he said he felt uncomfortable with businessman Omar Maani, when he claimed that saying “you can raise me five grand” means raising between $0 and $5,000, and when he dismissed his own incriminating comments on secret FBI recordings as just the way he talks.

“There was no written confession here,” Kolluri told jurors. “You didn’t need one. The recordings are the written confession, right? Everything’s there. It’s there for you.”

But before the jury of five men and seven women began deliberating the case Monday at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, they also heard from Jones’ defense attorney, Victor Henderson. He argued that the longtime senator had been set up. He questioned why the FBI never sent Maani with an envelope full of cash to offer Jones.

And on the whole, he accused prosecutors of the “Dirksen Two Step.”

“They knew he wasn’t dirty,” Henderson insisted. “They knew he wouldn’t take it.”

The jury deliberated for about two hours Monday before heading home for the night without reaching a verdict. The panel is expected to resume deliberations Tuesday morning.

Jones, a South Side Democrat, is the first sitting state legislator to face trial at the Dirksen courthouse since former state Rep. Derrick Smith, who was found guilty of bribery by a jury in 2014.

A parade of state lawmakers have faced criminal charges in the years since, only to resign from the Illinois General Assembly and admit their crimes. Former state Sens. Thomas Cullerton, Martin Sandoval and Terry Link all quit shortly before pleading guilty.

When prosecutors filed charges against Jones in 2022, they did so using a document known as an information — which typically signals a defendant’s intent to plead guilty. So Jones was expected to follow the lead of Cullerton, Sandoval, Link and others.

Jones decided to fight the charges instead. He even took the witness stand to testify in his own defense, three months after ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan made the same move in his own trial.

It’s a risky gambit that could open Jones up to claims of perjury if he’s convicted, especially now that Kolluri has argued that Jones lied on the stand. In all, jurors in Jones’ case heard from half a dozen witnesses over seven days of testimony.

Though much shorter and simpler than Madigan’s, Jones’ trial exposed a new panel of jurors to raw Illinois politics caught on secret FBI recordings. Jurors heard about the many “benefits” Maani delivered to suburban politicians, how Jones described the Senate president as the “boss” with “all the juice,” and how Sandoval once studied to be a priest.

Sandoval was the same politician who admitted in 2020 that he took bribes from Maani, a onetime partner in the red-light camera company SafeSpeed. Sandoval once said he’d go “balls to the walls” for Maani. In a separate FBI recording from a different case, Sandoval was described as an “indictment waiting to happen.” He died late in 2020.

Jones’ trial also revealed late-night text messages swapped between Jones and a former intern, in which the ex-intern asked for money while telling Jones he was on his way to a strip club. Jones was 41 at the time, and the former intern was 23.

Jones told the ex-intern, “I want to hang out with u” and “I want to see u after.”

Prosecutors say Jones agreed to protect Maani in the Illinois Senate in exchange for $5,000 and a job for the former intern, Christopher Katz. The ex-intern was paid $1,800 by Maani, even though he did no work. 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.

But Maani was also working for the FBI, having been caught delivering his “benefits” to other public officials. The alleged deal between Jones and Maani arose over two dinners in the summer of 2019 at the downtown steakhouse Steak 48, which Jones has made clear is his favorite spot in town.

“I frequent that restaurant quite often,” Jones testified. “I love their steaks. I go there all the time.”

Maani struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid a conviction. No other SafeSpeed executive has been accused of wrongdoing, and officials there characterize Maani as a rogue actor.

Prosecutors have also accused Jones of lying to the FBI. While speaking to agents on Sept. 24, 2019, Jones acknowledged much about discussions he’d had that summer with Maani and Sandoval. However, Jones denied that he and Maani had agreed on an amount for Maani to raise for Jones’ campaign.

“Did Omar say, like, ‘Hey, you know, what’s it gonna take?’” FBI Special Agent Timothy O’Brien said during the interview. “… Did you guys come up with an amount that he was going to donate for a fundraiser or anything like that?”

“No, no, no,” Jones said.

But jurors heard a separate recorded conversation between Jones and Maani from July 2019, in which Jones said, “If you can raise me five grand, that’d be good.” From the witness stand last week, Jones told jurors that means “anywhere between zero and five thousand.”

Jones also told the FBI in September 2019 that he “didn’t imply the bill would go away” if Maani hired the former intern.

That seemed to contradict another recording, in which Maani told Jones in August 2019 that he’d help the intern “100%.”

“And like I said before,” Maani added, “if you could just help me out with the, ah, the study to make it to Chicago.”

“You’re good,” Jones told Maani at the time.

Still, Jones told jurors from the witness stand that he never struck a deal with Maani. Not for the businessman to raise $5,000 for his campaign, and not for him to hire Katz.

“I didn’t think of it as that,” Jones testified. “The bill was dead.”