Friday, January 13, 2006
Hired Truck Probe Reaches Chicago City Clerk James Laski; “Go Cubs” Code for "Lie to the Grand Jury;" “Inner Circle” Next?
Sam Gammicchia was obviously one of now-arrested Chicago City Clerk James Laski's closest allies. Gammicchia was even paid $12,000 a year by Laski’s campaign committee from early 2002 through June 2005. “Consulting,” described his services.
A cooperating witness (CW-1), described in Hauser’s affidavit as “a personal friend of Laski’s,” helped start a trucking company in 1982. About 1992, the firm stopped using Laski’s friend’s name, but he continued in the operation. At least from 1998 to 2003, the company was in Chicago’s Hired Truck program. The friend admitted participating in a bribery scheme and making false statements to federal agents in his first interview concerning the involvement of a second cooperating witness (CW-2) in the bribery scheme.
Cooperating Witness 1 is now cooperating seeking a lighter sentence and leniency for Cooperating Witness 2, who is currently a city employee. The same motivation is cited for Cooperating Witness 2’s cooperation. They are both trying to help each other.
And, here comes the Laski angle. The first Cooperating Witness approached the City Clerk in 1997 and asked for help in getting his trucking firm into the Hired Truck program.
Laski is said to have replied something like, “If I get this truck on, I want $500 a month.”
An agreement was reached, the trucking firm was hired by the city and Laski started getting $500 a month.
In 2001, Laski was approached for more Hired Truck work. Laski told the now-federal informant that he would have to see Donald Tomczak, who has already turned state’s evidence. Another truck in the program and another $500 a month for Laski is what the federal investigators were told.
In January 2004, the payments stopped—at Laski’s request--when the Chicago Sun-Times broke the story of the U.S. Attorney’s investigation of the Hired Truck scheme.
Both cooperating witnesses typically made cash payments to Laski, according to the affidavit. Cooperating Witness 2 was the company bookkeeper and provided the cash. Witness 2 saw the cash handoff from Witness 1 to Laski at least times. Once Laski came to Witness 2’s home to pick up the $1,000 and twice took envelopes of $1,000 to the City Clerk’s satellite office on South Cicero Avenue.
Sometimes Laski came to the home of Cooperating Witness 1 to pick up the cash and referred to his role as “protection” of the trucking business.
The affidavit relates how Laski visited Tomczak about eight times, describing the owner of the trucking company as one of his campaign contributors and allegedly told Tomczak that he could get jobs at his City Clerk’s office, if he would help get the firm in the Hired Truck program. But Tomczak said he didn’t get any money from Laski or take him up on the offer to supply jobs to people Tomczak would recommend.
Laski met with federal officials on August 22, 2005. Thereafter, Laski is said to have offered to pay for Cooperating Witness 1’s legal fees and that “CW-1 should keep his/her mouth shut,” according to the affidavit.
“We’ve got to keep it straight, we can’t get weak” and “there’s absolutely no proof of what you gave me,” Laski is reported to have told Witness 2 on September 13th. Laski even patted down the Witness, looking for a recording device.
Suggesting the close relationship of Witnesses 1 and 2, Laski “said words to the effect of, “you might have to do a little time, but I’ll take care of [CW-2],” again, according to the affidavit.
Sept. 14th, Gammicchia gave Witness1 $5,000 in cash to pay for attorney’s fees, saying it was from another individual close to Laski. Cooperating Witness 2 turned the money over to the Feds on the 16th.
On Sept. 17th, Witness One recorded a conversation with Laski in which both expressed concerns about the federal investigation.
The next day, the two spent several hours together with the recording device running, telling him, at the agents, that he was going to be compelled to testify under a grant of immunity.
Here’s what the affidavit reveals:
On September 27, 2005, CW-1 and CW-2 met with Laski and Gammicchia at the latter;s home. CW-2 wore a recording device.
The affidavit says that Gammicchia “counseled CW-2 to lie to the grand jury and federal investigators.”
In October other recorded conversations continued. In one, Laski advises CW-1 that CW-2 could just be sick the day he was subpoenaed. In a subsequent meeting with Laski, he said that he did not get any money in connection with the Hired Truck program and if he received “political contributions,” he gave them to Gammicchia.
Gammicchia was recorded giving more advice to CW-1 over the phone in mid-October. Told to say the money was for political contributions, Witness 1 replies, “What if [Laski] says, ‘Yeah, [CW-2] knows [he/she] was giving me money for the Hired Truck Program.’ Well then [CW-2] lied, [his/her] immunity is gone.”
“Well, he wouldn’t say that…On no. Forget about it. He would never say that. That would put him right in jail. He would never go home,”Gamicchia replied.
Later in the conversation CW-2 relates what Laski said the night before:
“[He was] denying that [CW-2] ever gave him anything…’[CW-2] never gave me anything. Never never.’ And [CW-2]’s sitting there last night going, ‘but I did’…”
“Between me and you, [Laski’s] worried that [CW-2]’s wired. That how paranoid this guy is. This fucking guy almost searched me last night…He picked up my coat, he was rubbing it.”
In another call to Gammicchia that night, CW-1 told him that CW-2 was going will to say the cash was a political contribution. “[He/she]’s gonna risk [his/her] own ass to save Jim’s…All [CW-2] wants to know, is if Jim is gonna go along with this?’
The reply? “[Laski] cannot say differently…He’s gotta say yes.”
Presumably programmed by the agents, CW-1 says, “We gotta hear from Jim that the plan is ok…We have to know he’s on board with this.”
“Well, you know him,” Gammicchia replied, “he won’t say nothing. He’s afraid of his own shadow. But I say yes do that.”
“He doesn’t have to say it all…All he has to – call me up and say this, “Go Cubs,” CW-1 said. “And we’ll know that it’s ok with it, and I’ll send [CW-2] in there and I’ll have [CW-2] say, hey you know it was political contributions.”
About thirty minutes later, Laski called and said, “Yeah, go Cubs.
CW-1 said, “Alright buddy.
Laski said a second time, “Yeah, go Cubs.”
On October 16, 2005, after the supposed grand jury testimony of CW-2, Laksi and Gammicchia went to CW-1’s home unannounced and found him not there. Finding out about that they were waiting outside, CW-1 went home all wired up.
CW-1 said, “You guys alright. You’re here, you’re scaring me.”
“No, no, no…I feel bad for you…You’re the one who always says be careful on the phone, be careful on the phone. You’re saying shit on the phone that makes everybody, a lot, very nervous…I know you’re pissed…but you’re saying shit on the phone about giving this, giving that and giving this. On the phone! I don’t know where you’re going with that. You’re the one who always says, ‘Don’t talk on the phone.’”
Further, Laski said, I just want to cover over here and just make you feel better. Everybody knows what they have to do. Everybody…We can talk but…I get pissed when you say shit like that on the phone.”
Six days later, on October 22nd, Gammicchia again met with CW-1 and CW-2 and told him that Laski was concerned about wiretaps and CW-1’s wearing a recording device. Left alone with CW-1 at the end of the meeting, Gammicchia said, “If you’re wired or not wired that’s your business. If you want to put me in the trick bag being wired, that’s fine. The only thing if I go to jail, you’d have to go under witness protection and that would be the thing.
“According to CW-1, Gammicchia has said in the past that Gammicchia would kill for the Clerk,” according to the affidavit.
The affidavit concludes by reporting that CW-1 took the conversation as a threat, fearing retaliation against him and his/her family for cooperating with the government.
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
A cooperating witness (CW-1), described in Hauser’s affidavit as “a personal friend of Laski’s,” helped start a trucking company in 1982. About 1992, the firm stopped using Laski’s friend’s name, but he continued in the operation. At least from 1998 to 2003, the company was in Chicago’s Hired Truck program. The friend admitted participating in a bribery scheme and making false statements to federal agents in his first interview concerning the involvement of a second cooperating witness (CW-2) in the bribery scheme.
Cooperating Witness 1 is now cooperating seeking a lighter sentence and leniency for Cooperating Witness 2, who is currently a city employee. The same motivation is cited for Cooperating Witness 2’s cooperation. They are both trying to help each other.
And, here comes the Laski angle. The first Cooperating Witness approached the City Clerk in 1997 and asked for help in getting his trucking firm into the Hired Truck program.
Laski is said to have replied something like, “If I get this truck on, I want $500 a month.”
An agreement was reached, the trucking firm was hired by the city and Laski started getting $500 a month.
In 2001, Laski was approached for more Hired Truck work. Laski told the now-federal informant that he would have to see Donald Tomczak, who has already turned state’s evidence. Another truck in the program and another $500 a month for Laski is what the federal investigators were told.
In January 2004, the payments stopped—at Laski’s request--when the Chicago Sun-Times broke the story of the U.S. Attorney’s investigation of the Hired Truck scheme.
Both cooperating witnesses typically made cash payments to Laski, according to the affidavit. Cooperating Witness 2 was the company bookkeeper and provided the cash. Witness 2 saw the cash handoff from Witness 1 to Laski at least times. Once Laski came to Witness 2’s home to pick up the $1,000 and twice took envelopes of $1,000 to the City Clerk’s satellite office on South Cicero Avenue.
Sometimes Laski came to the home of Cooperating Witness 1 to pick up the cash and referred to his role as “protection” of the trucking business.
The affidavit relates how Laski visited Tomczak about eight times, describing the owner of the trucking company as one of his campaign contributors and allegedly told Tomczak that he could get jobs at his City Clerk’s office, if he would help get the firm in the Hired Truck program. But Tomczak said he didn’t get any money from Laski or take him up on the offer to supply jobs to people Tomczak would recommend.
Laski met with federal officials on August 22, 2005. Thereafter, Laski is said to have offered to pay for Cooperating Witness 1’s legal fees and that “CW-1 should keep his/her mouth shut,” according to the affidavit.
“We’ve got to keep it straight, we can’t get weak” and “there’s absolutely no proof of what you gave me,” Laski is reported to have told Witness 2 on September 13th. Laski even patted down the Witness, looking for a recording device.
Suggesting the close relationship of Witnesses 1 and 2, Laski “said words to the effect of, “you might have to do a little time, but I’ll take care of [CW-2],” again, according to the affidavit.
Sept. 14th, Gammicchia gave Witness1 $5,000 in cash to pay for attorney’s fees, saying it was from another individual close to Laski. Cooperating Witness 2 turned the money over to the Feds on the 16th.
On Sept. 17th, Witness One recorded a conversation with Laski in which both expressed concerns about the federal investigation.
The next day, the two spent several hours together with the recording device running, telling him, at the agents, that he was going to be compelled to testify under a grant of immunity.
Here’s what the affidavit reveals:
CW-2 – Got any ideas?
Laski – [CW-2] borrowed from me so that whatever [he/she] gave me, [he/she] gave me something, I don’t even recall. It could have been a pay back from a loan, it would have been we were getting an ad, a hole sponsorship [relating to a political fundraiser] whatever. You know I don’t recall and if you’re saying – what does [he/she] recall, once or tices?”
CW-2 – Maybe five to eight times…At the house, at the satellite office...Just gotta tell me what to do.
Laski – I’m just saying, who else knows besides?
CW-2 – Me and [CW-2]?
Laski – Yeah…Why else knows?
CW-2 – Just me and [CW-2] and you.
Laski – But [CW-2] accomplishes nothing by – accomplishes nothing, nothing. Because I don’t how does it ever come back, how does it ever come back after that?
CW-1 – five years worth of checks [CW-2] wrote you know. There’s some case here, there’s some cash there.
Laski – [CW-2] can’t remember all that. I don’t even know what all that is for. I mean, I don’t know what that’s for. I have no idea.
CW-1 – We gotta come up with something, Jim.
Laski (later) – To help each other, we gotta be around to help each other.
Laski (also) – Here’s the bottom line…And we’re gonna be very frank right now, and I know you’re not setting me up…Listen to me, listen to me. It’s you, me and [CW-2] okay? Do you think when I sat down for three hours [at a proffer to the government], I didn’t lie?
CW-1 – You had to lie…With [CW-2] with immunity, if [CW-2]lies, do you know what I’m saying?…They’re going through all the checks.
Laski – If [CW-2] answers one question, you know. If they – you know, the one question…The one question about you and me. How does that ever come back?
Laski (also) – [CW-2] never gave me money for the hired truck.
CW-1 - Jim, this is, this is all bullshit. I mean, I don’t even. [CW-2] is not stupid.
Laski – Here’s what’s going to happen. [The prosecutor] will ask [CW-2] if [he/she’s] ever given money, okay?…If [CW-2] says, “yeah I have him money,” okay. I never got money so I mean…then they’re going to go to you, give you immunity and then it’s gonna be you and [CW-2] against me and then…the whole frickin’ thing, you know. It’s gonna be he said, she said lies. Who’s lying? Who’s not lying? You know?
Laski (later) – [Another individual] always told me don’t talk to anybody, you know, but, this is crunch time for us…Everybody in the inner circle is committed to helping everybody.
Laske (later) – if something happens to me where are we all at?…What are they [the government] gonna do for anybody?
Laske (also) – Well, I’m telling you I didn’t take anything okay? So that’s my position okay. Because if [CW-2] says [he/she] gave me money and they could proved that, yeah, I’m going to jail. Okay, that’s the bottom line. It’s the bottom line. I didn’t take anything. Do I get Christmas gifts and birthday gifts, yeah, absolutely, year. When this whole thing started for the help and everything, it was never I – I never concocted an idea, I never was the one who said, you know, I’ll some people get trucks on and I want something out of it. Never said it. I was doing to help people…And my position right now is that I’ll do anything…to help the inner circle, but I, I can’t frickin’ help somebody if I’m gonna get…it stuck to me.
Laksi (also) – Just one question, if they ask, “I don’t recall that.” I’m not asking [CW-2] to lie, I’m just saying that if [he/she] don’t recall specifically, you don’t recall. Because from that point on, we just deal with you [CW-1].
CW-1 – The one question is gonna be is, “Did you ever give Jim anything?
Laski – Right.
CW-2 – “And was it money?” And then [CW-2]’s gonna say, “Well I did give him an envelope” or “I don’t know,” I don’t know what to say…I don’t want to go into all this bullshit like you said earlier, football polls and…I don’t know…all that shit.
Laski – Yeah, nobody knows, nobody knows. Even nobody knows when anything happened. You know, you know, “Did you hand him something?” “Yeah, I didn’t know what’s in the envelope.” I mean, it could have been correspondence – we don’t know what was in the envelope. I picked up stickers. “Have you ever handed him anything” “Yeah I did.” “I mean, do you ever recall what it was?” “I don’t know, I mean it was stuff for work.”…It’s one question. That’s it.
On September 27, 2005, CW-1 and CW-2 met with Laski and Gammicchia at the latter;s home. CW-2 wore a recording device.
The affidavit says that Gammicchia “counseled CW-2 to lie to the grand jury and federal investigators.”
Gammicchia – They [the feds] don’t have nothing…You can’t say you gave cash.
CW-2 – Even though I did?
Gammicchia – Right
Gammicchia (also) – Get your stories straight…If you incriminate Jim…everything goes down the tubes. (The investigators will ask) “What were all these checks made out to?” You’re gonna have to say, “I don’t recall.”
CW-2 – I’ll know it was to give money for the trucks.
Gammicchia – If you got down there “Salt,” that’s what it went for.
CW-2 – Even though I know that wasn’t the truth?
Gammicchia – Yeah…you wipe that out of your mind. Don’t even think that.
CW-1 (asks Laski_ - What do you think?
Laski – (remains silent)
Gammicchia – [Laski] didn’t implicate nobody. [CW-2] shouldn’t implicate nobody.
Gammicchia (posing a series of questions to CW-2 in Laski’s presence as hypothetical grand jury questions, including) Did you give Jim Laski any money?
CW-2 - Yes.
Gammicchia – What is [the money] for?
CW-2 – To keep the trucks on.
Gammicchia – You can’t say that now.
Gammicchia (later) – Now, how do we cover it up, without saying it’s for a truck?
Gammicchia (also told the two to tell their lawyers the truth)
In October other recorded conversations continued. In one, Laski advises CW-1 that CW-2 could just be sick the day he was subpoenaed. In a subsequent meeting with Laski, he said that he did not get any money in connection with the Hired Truck program and if he received “political contributions,” he gave them to Gammicchia.
Gammicchia was recorded giving more advice to CW-1 over the phone in mid-October. Told to say the money was for political contributions, Witness 1 replies, “What if [Laski] says, ‘Yeah, [CW-2] knows [he/she] was giving me money for the Hired Truck Program.’ Well then [CW-2] lied, [his/her] immunity is gone.”
“Well, he wouldn’t say that…On no. Forget about it. He would never say that. That would put him right in jail. He would never go home,”Gamicchia replied.
Later in the conversation CW-2 relates what Laski said the night before:
“[He was] denying that [CW-2] ever gave him anything…’[CW-2] never gave me anything. Never never.’ And [CW-2]’s sitting there last night going, ‘but I did’…”
“Between me and you, [Laski’s] worried that [CW-2]’s wired. That how paranoid this guy is. This fucking guy almost searched me last night…He picked up my coat, he was rubbing it.”
In another call to Gammicchia that night, CW-1 told him that CW-2 was going will to say the cash was a political contribution. “[He/she]’s gonna risk [his/her] own ass to save Jim’s…All [CW-2] wants to know, is if Jim is gonna go along with this?’
The reply? “[Laski] cannot say differently…He’s gotta say yes.”
Presumably programmed by the agents, CW-1 says, “We gotta hear from Jim that the plan is ok…We have to know he’s on board with this.”
“Well, you know him,” Gammicchia replied, “he won’t say nothing. He’s afraid of his own shadow. But I say yes do that.”
“He doesn’t have to say it all…All he has to – call me up and say this, “Go Cubs,” CW-1 said. “And we’ll know that it’s ok with it, and I’ll send [CW-2] in there and I’ll have [CW-2] say, hey you know it was political contributions.”
About thirty minutes later, Laski called and said, “Yeah, go Cubs.
CW-1 said, “Alright buddy.
Laski said a second time, “Yeah, go Cubs.”
On October 16, 2005, after the supposed grand jury testimony of CW-2, Laksi and Gammicchia went to CW-1’s home unannounced and found him not there. Finding out about that they were waiting outside, CW-1 went home all wired up.
CW-1 said, “You guys alright. You’re here, you’re scaring me.”
“No, no, no…I feel bad for you…You’re the one who always says be careful on the phone, be careful on the phone. You’re saying shit on the phone that makes everybody, a lot, very nervous…I know you’re pissed…but you’re saying shit on the phone about giving this, giving that and giving this. On the phone! I don’t know where you’re going with that. You’re the one who always says, ‘Don’t talk on the phone.’”
Further, Laski said, I just want to cover over here and just make you feel better. Everybody knows what they have to do. Everybody…We can talk but…I get pissed when you say shit like that on the phone.”
Six days later, on October 22nd, Gammicchia again met with CW-1 and CW-2 and told him that Laski was concerned about wiretaps and CW-1’s wearing a recording device. Left alone with CW-1 at the end of the meeting, Gammicchia said, “If you’re wired or not wired that’s your business. If you want to put me in the trick bag being wired, that’s fine. The only thing if I go to jail, you’d have to go under witness protection and that would be the thing.
“According to CW-1, Gammicchia has said in the past that Gammicchia would kill for the Clerk,” according to the affidavit.
The affidavit concludes by reporting that CW-1 took the conversation as a threat, fearing retaliation against him and his/her family for cooperating with the government.
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 4:43 PM
