Melba Lara: Federal jurors in Chicago had handed down a guilty verdict in another political corruption trial. In this case, the defendant was James T. Weiss, a clout-heavy businessman who was convicted of bribing two Illinois lawmakers to promote gambling legislation. Here to break down the verdict and the evidences jurors weighed in Chicago, sometimes federal courts reporter Jon Seidel. And Jon, this is the second federal bribery conviction involving politicians in Springfield in the last couple of months. Tell us a little bit more about this case. Who is James Weiss, and what's he accused of?

Jon Seidel: James Weiss is a businessman who owned a company known as Collage L.L.C. that was involved in the sweepstakes industry. These sweepstakes machines are these unregulated gambling devices that kind of fall into a gray area of state law and they're therefore unregulated and largely untaxed. Prosecutors say he went about an effort to try and explicitly legalize those machines, but he did so in an illegal way,

Melba Lara: There were actually multiple state lawmakers who surfaced here in this trial. Can you tell us who they were and what their roles were?

Jon Seidel: Sure, first was then State Representative Luis Arroyo, who Weiss paid $32,500 in bribes to over the course of a year to try and get this sweepstakes language inserted into the General Assembly's big gambling package in 2019. They didn't get it done though. And so they then turned to then State Senator Terry Link, who was a key lawmaker on the gambling negotiations. What Arroyo and Weiss didn't know though was that Link was working secretly with the FBI and wound up wearing a wire.

Melba Lara: Jon, the government played tapes of some secretly recorded conversations for the jurors during the trial. You pulled one clip that was played at the trial. Let's hear that.

Terry Link: It’s just you and I talking now.

Luis Arroyo: Okay.

Terry Link: Nobody else, right?

Luis Arroyo: Whatever you tell me, Terry, stays between you and me. That’s my word.

Terry Link: What’s in it for me though?

Melba Lara: Can you tell us what's happening in this recording? And what was the importance of this exchange?

Jon Seidel: Sure, happy to. This is the first meeting that we heard about at the trial between Terry Link, Luis Arroyo and James Weiss where the three got together at a Wendy's in Highland Park to talk about getting this sweepstakes language into a bill in the General Assembly's veto session. But at some point, Link asked Arroyo to come outside and talk to him alone. And that's when you hear Terry Link outside the Wendy's ask Arroyo "What's in it for me?" Now, the FBI said Link was instructed not to specifically solicit a bribe. That's why he kept it vague. What's in it for me? They said Arroyo could've responded by talking about  other legislation or just the typical political horse trading that goes on. It didn't have to be a bribe, but instead, they said Arroyo switched directly into corruption mode and started talking to Link about how Arroyo was a paid consultant for Weiss getting $2,500 a month and that the same kind of arrangement could be made for a Link.

Melba Lara: And Jon is there ever going to be a break in these political corruption cases at the Chicago Federal courthouse?

Jon Seidel: It doesn't look like it. I mean, we are in a, a remarkable run of public corruption trials. You know, Weiss is the sixth person just this year to be convicted by a jury on charges related to the feds public corruption investigations. We haven't seen a not guilty verdict yet and you know, you begin to wonder what effect that has on the people who, you know, who our next in line. And let's not forget Michael Madigan faces his own trial in April of next year.

Melba Lara: That is Chicago Sun-Times federal court reporter John Seidel. Jon, always great to talk to you. Thank you so much.

Jon Seidel: Happy to do it.

Melba Lara: This is WBEZ.

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