Chicago Attorney Who Helped Trump Appeal Property Taxes Has Office Raided By Fed Agents

Nationally, media outlets and websites were quick to note that Burke once served as the attorney who appealed property taxes on behalf of President Donald Trump’s Chicago tower before cutting those ties earlier this year. And the raids on Burke’s office came on the same day the president’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump project in Moscow as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The timing of that development and the raid on Burke’s offices led to rampant speculation that the searches were related to work Burke’s law firm did for Trump. The Burke investigation, however, was being conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, not Mueller’s office, said Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Lausch.

Authorities did not search Burke’s law office Thursday, a law enforcement source told the Chicago Tribune. The investigation involves recent allegations and no arrests were made or are imminent, according to the source.

The focus of the federal investigation remained uncertain. What is clear: Burke’s influence at City Hall and beyond is vast.

The City Council Finance Committee he has chaired for decades holds great sway over the city’s purse strings, controls the city’s $100 million per year workers’ compensation program and often decides whether Chicago’s most important legislation will move forward. For decades, Burke also has held heavy influence on who gets appointed to the judicial bench in Cook County.

Burke long has been the most prolific fundraiser among Chicago’s 50 aldermen, often accepting contributions from interests affected by legislation before the City Council. The 14th Ward alderman also has a lucrative business as one of the city’s most prominent property tax appeals attorneys, routinely saving some of Chicago’s largest business interests millions of dollars on their tax bills, Trump included.

If Burke knows what the feds are eyeing, he didn’t let on.

As FBI agents rummaged through his offices, the alderman attended a luncheon at the Chicago Yacht Club celebrating his wife, Anne Burke, who on Thursday was sworn into her second 10-year term on the Illinois Supreme Court.