Chicago Patronage Convictions Upheld By Federal Appeals Court

The Chicago Tribune reports:

In a key win for federal prosecutors, an appellate court in Chicago on Tuesday upheld the convictions of four former top aides to Mayor Richard Daley who were convicted in a scheme to rig hiring and promotions at City Hall.

Former Daley patronage chief Robert Sorich and two co-defendants were found guilty in 2006 of doling out jobs to reward members of political armies who campaigned for favored candidates. A fourth defendant was convicted of lying to investigators.

On appeal, lawyers for the former city aides argued that they could not be convicted of criminal fraud because they took no bribes or kickbacks in the scheme.

But in a sharply worded opinion, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals swatted away that argument.

"These defendants were key players in a corrupt and far-reaching scheme, based out of the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, that doled out thousands of city civil service jobs based on political patronage and nepotism," Judge Ann Williams wrote for the unanimous panel.

No word yet from David Axelrod who thinks Chicago running a patronage operation is no big deal.