{"id":453119,"date":"2010-03-20T16:47:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-20T20:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a95b3287970b"},"modified":"2010-03-20T16:47:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-20T20:47:09","slug":"daley-wont-discuss-specifics-of-2008-fbi-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/453119","title":{"rendered":"Daley won&#8217;t discuss specifics of 2008 FBI interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Posted by John Byrne<\/em> at 3:46 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Richard Daley on Saturday refused to discuss specifics of his 2008 interview with FBI agents investigating a West Side land deal, saying he was simply cooperating in a federal attempt to root out corruption.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor said developer Calvin Boender&#8217;s conviction last week following a probe into the Galewood Yards development is an isolated incident, not an indication of a broader problem of pay-to-play relationships between real estate developers and Chicago elected officials.<\/p>\n<p><\/br>Boender was convicted of bribing then-Ald. Isaac \u201cIke\u201d Carothers in 2004 in exchange for Carothers\u2019 help getting a zoning change over the objection of city planners Boender also was found guily of two counts of illegal campaign contributions and two counts of obstructing justice.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>\u201cThat was strictly personal between (Boender) and somebody,\u201d Daley said Saturday when asked whether the Galewood Yards case shines a light on how real estate deals get brokered across the city. \u201cThat\u2019s all it was. And he got convicted. Thank God he got convicted. No, there\u2019s no pattern.\u201d<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>Boender also enlisted the support of U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Northwest Side Democrat, in his push to get Galewood Yards rezoned. After receiving a $200,000 loan from Boender for his own real estate investments, Gutierrez \u2013 who has been accused of no wrongdoing \u2014 personally lobbied Daley. The mayor insisted the zoning change was not at the heart of the federal investigation.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>\u201cIt had nothing to do with (the zoning change). It had only to do with bribery,\u201d Daley said while talking with reporters after an event in the Roseland neighborhood to encourage Chicagoans to fill out their U.S. Census forms. \u201cThat was the issue: bribery.\u201d<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>The mayor would not say he was asked about a meeting with Gutierrez and Boender when FBI agents secretly interviewed him about the development in 2008 at a downtown hotel.<br \/><\/br><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on that,\u201d Daley said.<\/p>\n<p>The Tribune <a href=\"http:\/\/newsblogs.chicagotribune.com\/clout_st\/2010\/03\/mayor-richard-daley-secretly-questioned-by-fbi-in-2008-over-real-estate-probe.html\">first disclosed<\/a> Daley&#8217;s 2008 meeting with FBI agents on its Web site Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted by John Byrne at 3:46 p.m. Mayor Richard Daley on Saturday refused to discuss specifics of his 2008 interview with FBI agents investigating a West Side land deal, saying he was simply cooperating in a federal attempt to root out corruption. The mayor said developer Calvin Boender&#8217;s conviction last week following a probe into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}