A “superstar” veteran prosecutor who helped secure convictions and prison sentences for former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and ex-Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke is leaving the U.S. attorney’s office by the end of the year.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker has worked as a prosecutor there since 2010 and will be leaving in the coming weeks. That’s according to Joseph Fitzpatrick, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros.
Streicker leaves as the head of the office’s Public Corruption and Organized Crime Section. She took on that role in March, following the departure of Amarjeet Bhachu, the previous head of that section. Bhachu also played a key role in the investigation of Madigan and Burke.
Streicker declined to comment through Fitzpatrick. But Megan Church, a onetime colleague of Streicker’s in the U.S. attorney’s office, said Streicker is a “superstar” who is thoughtful and diligent and “working to get it right, whatever the outcome may be.”
“She is so trustworthy,” said Church, now a partner at MoloLamken. “And she has great credibility. When she is talking to a judge, a jury, or opposing counsel, they know that she is telling them the truth.”
Bhachu and Streicker are among five section chiefs who have either left the U.S. attorney’s office this year, or plan to by the end of next month, Fitzpatrick confirmed. The others are Scott Edenfield of the violent crime section; Brian Kerwin of appeals; and Steve Dollear, who led the national security section.
Other notable departures this year have included Erika Csicsila, who left after serving as chief of the criminal division; and Barry Jonas, a veteran national security prosecutor.
Fitzpatrick declined to comment on the unusual flurry of departures.
They’ve all left as controversy swirls around the Justice Department in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. The department’s Public Integrity Section, a once-prestigious unit that investigated corrupt public officials across the country, has seen almost all of its prosecutors leave. Chicago’s U.S. attorney’s office also now plays a key role in the Trump administration deportation campaign known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Meanwhile, the office has largely moved on from the lengthy corruption investigation that roiled Chicago and led to the downfall of Madigan, Burke and others. Madigan is in prison and appealing his conviction. Burke has done his time and filed no appeal.
Streicker played a prominent role in the trials of both men. She delivered the final argument in the trial of Burke, the longest-serving City Council member in Chicago history. Along the way, she rebutted an impassioned commentary from Burke defense attorney Joseph Duffy.
During closing arguments, Duffy tried to make Streicker and her colleagues pay for not calling a key witness to the stand: Danny Solis, the former City Council member who secretly recorded Burke, Madigan and others to avoid his own conviction.
Solis testified only as a defense witness in Burke’s trial, and he was not cross-examined by prosecutors. So Duffy demanded, “why did we have to bring Danny Solis in here?”
“That should give you pause,” Duffy told the jury. “The fact that they ran an undercover investigation on Mr. Burke for 30 months — with the star witness being Danny Solis — and they didn’t have the decency to bring him to you.”
When it was her turn, Streicker displayed Burke’s own recorded words on a screen in the courtroom. Burke looked on as she ticked off phrases he’d uttered while trying to strong-arm developers, like, “they can go f— themselves” and “did we land the tuna?”
Eventually, Streicker emphasized one final quote for the jury.
“The cash register has not rung yet,” she said, quoting Burke.
Streicker tapped her left index finger against her temple and asked the jurors, “what better evidence can there be of what defendant Burke’s intent was?”
She said the recordings were “absolutely devastating” to him.
The jury wound up convicting Burke on 13 counts. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall later sentenced him to two years in prison, and he served nine months before being released.
Ten months after her closing argument in Burke’s trial, Streicker also then delivered the opening statement in Madigan’s. The Southwest Side Democrat was later convicted in a mixed verdict, and he’s now serving a 7 ½ year prison sentence in West Virginia.
But his trial began in earnest in October 2024 with the commentary from Streicker.
She gestured toward the former speaker in the courtroom and told the jury he was guilty of “corruption at the highest levels of state government.”