Old Post Office still the focus

Powerful Chicago Ald. Ed Burke had just finished pitching his private law firm to the developers of the Old Post Office in October 2016 when he asked his assistant to bring in some pamphlets and business cards.

Unbeknownst to Burke, his colleague, then-Ald. Daniel Solis had a hidden video camera pointing right at him as Burke wrote something down on the back of the Klafter & Burke materials and slid it over Harry Skydell and his son, who had flown in from New York to meet Burke face to face.

“Between Danny and I there aren’t many people around town we don’t know,” Burke said on the recording, which was played for jurors Wednesday at Burke’s corruption trial. Skydell thanked Burke and remarked about his connections, saying, “I’d be surprised if you don’t know somebody here. If you don’t know somebody, he’s a nobody.”

Burke then launched into a tale about the origin of the most Chicago of political phrases: “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.”

As they got up…