Chicago – The biggest corruption trial in Chicago in decades opened Wednesday with a federal prosecutor launching a blistering attack on former Gov. George Ryan, saying he betrayed the public’s trust by taking cash and gifts to help insiders land lucrative state contracts.
“The fix was in in Illinois government,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon.
The verbal pounding brought Ryan defense attorney Dan Webb to his feet to demand a mistrial the minute Fardon sat down. The request was denied.
Ryan, 71, is accused of giving a lobbyist friend, Larry Warner, free rein to steer contracts to his clients in exchange for gifts and favors during Ryan’s term as Illinois secretary of state in the 1990s. Ryan faces 18 corruption counts, including conspiracy and fraud. Warner, a co-defendant, faces 12 counts.
The federal case, dubbed Operation Safe Road, began seven years ago as a probe into the paying of bribes for driver’s licenses and ballooned into a full-scale investigation of political corruption in Illinois.
Ryan, a capital-punishment opponent who cleared out Illinois’ death row by commuting the sentences of 167 inmates, was ultimately driven out of politics by the burgeoning scandal. The Republican decided not to seek a second term in 2002 and was indicted about a year after leaving office.
Fardon alleged that Warner, one of Ryan’s closest confidants, provided loans and cash to Ryan’s relatives. Fardon told the jury that employees in the secretary of state’s office under Ryan were told to “keep Larry Warner happy and help Warner whenever possible.”
Warner did nothing wrong, his lawyer said.
“What he did was business, what he did was smart business, what he did was lucrative business, but what he did was legal business,” said Warner attorney Terence Gillespie.
