Chicago City Clerk Faces Charges in Bribes

CBS TV Chicago reports:

"What's alleged in the (criminal complaint against Laski) is naked bribery -- it's 'pay me money and you'll get business," U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said at a news conference Friday.

Fitzgerald said a witness who was cooperating with the government approached Laski in late 1997, and Laski offered to get that witness' trucking business into the Hired Truck program for $500 per month.

Prosecutors alleged the trucking business began participating in the Hired Truck program between 1998 and 2000, and Laski received payoffs, Fitzgerald said. Laski also told the witness he was in touch with an "influential alderman," Fitzgerald said, although he would not identify whom that meant.

In late 2000, prosecutors alleged, Laski increased the amount to $1,000 per month after getting another of the witness' trucks working for the city. In 2001, business for the company in the Hired Truck program picked up, particularly from the city Department of Water Management, Fitzgerald said.

A court affidavit said Laski got work for the trucker by promising a former head of the city water department, Donald Tomczak, that he would hire applicants recommended by Tomczak for jobs in the clerk's office in return for help getting trucks in the program. Fitzgerald said Tomczak has claimed he never sent any applicants to Laski's office.

This is the same Donald Tomczak who has political ties to Rahm Emanuel.Patrick Fitzgerald's job in Chicago is endless.