Cook County’s top prosecutor declined to criticize the Trump administration in the weeks leading up to Operation Midway Blitz because she wanted to keep her “excellent working relationships” with federal law enforcement, newly filed court records show.
It’s evidence that Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has a conflict that justifies the installation of a special prosecutor who could investigate the federal agents behind last fall’s deportation campaign, a coalition of elected officials and community members argued.
“The State’s Attorney has an alliance with federal law enforcement that prevents her from taking action against the federal agents alleged to have committed crimes during Operation Midway Blitz,” its lawyers wrote in a 30-page court filing Friday.
But O’Neill Burke’s staff insisted Tuesday she’s “horrified by the thuggish and inappropriate conduct of [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents in Chicago and elsewhere.” Her office also said they’ve “repeatedly and consistently denounced the Trump administration’s abuse of the law and public trust, including filing an amicus brief to prevent the deployment of the National Guard to Chicago.”
“The petition seeking a special prosecutor is frivolous, contains baseless allegations and gross misrepresentations of the law, and will make it more difficult for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to successfully do its job protecting the public,” O’Neill Burke’s office said in its statement.
The fight over whether a special prosecutor should be appointed could come to a head soon, as Cook County Circuit Judge Erica Reddick is set to hear arguments Friday. She is the presiding judge of the court’s criminal division. O’Neill Burke’s office promised a “comprehensive response” during the arguments.
The coalition seeking a special prosecutor pointed in its new filing to an Aug. 11 email. Sent by a member of the Justice Advisory Council, it discussed an effort by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office to get county agencies to sign on to a statement “responding to the recent actions and rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration.”
President Donald Trump threatened that same day to deploy the National Guard into Chicago. Trump eventually tried to follow through on that threat, but he was blocked first by U.S. District Judge April Perry and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court.
Then-O’Neill Burke spokesman Matt McGrath responded Aug. 12, the morning after Trump’s threat.
“We obviously share concerns about Trump’s actions, rhetoric, and bluster,” he wrote. “At the same time the State’s Attorney’s top priority remains combating illegal guns, and to continue doing that effectively we need to maintain our excellent working relationships with the local [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and other federal partners. So we will not be able to sign on.”
Operation Midway Blitz began four weeks after the email, a copy of which was filed Friday with the coalition’s latest brief in the special prosecutor litigation.
“If the state’s attorney felt that her conflict arising from federal collaborations prevented her from even opposing the Trump Administration’s threats to Chicago, then surely the same conflict prevents her from investigating and prosecuting federal agents who carried out those threats shortly thereafter,” the coalition’s attorneys wrote in their filing Friday.
The coalition seeking a special prosecutor is made up of more than 200 elected officials, clergy, journalists and attorneys. It includes the Chicago News Guild, which represents journalists at the Chicago Sun-Times. The effort is led in court by the Loevy and Loevy law firm.
Prosecuting federal agents in state court would require showing they acted unreasonably while fulfilling their duties. Meanwhile, prosecutors like O’Neill Burke are entrusted with discretion to choose which cases to pursue.
O’Neill Burke has insisted any investigation must be conducted by law enforcement. Her office filed an amicus brief urging Perry to block National Guard deployment. And it’s pointed to a 2017 Illinois Supreme Court ruling she says limits her own ability to investigate the agents.
The high court found that a state’s attorney’s duty to investigate is “limited to circumstances where other law enforcement agencies inadequately deal with such investigation … or where a law enforcement agency asks the state’s attorney for assistance.”
But the coalition argued Friday that “it is perfectly clear that local police are failing to investigate.” They pointed to the lack of any probe by the Franklin Park or Chicago police into the September killing of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez by a federal agent.
The coalition argued that circumstances now are similar to those that led to special prosecutors in two previous high-profile cases: The death of Laquan McDonald at the hands of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, and of David Koschman at the hands of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko.
“There is ample basis for the inference that the state’s attorney’s failure to act is because she is beholden to law enforcement and unwilling to risk impairing political and institutional relationships,” the coalition’s attorneys wrote. “Just as in those cases, a special prosecutor should be appointed here.”
Neither the reporters nor editors who worked on this story — including some represented by the News Guild — have been involved in the litigation described in this article.