More problems for Illinois Democrats: Four former City of Chicago employees, as well as one current one, have been charged in the ongoing corruption investigation at City Hall.
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Federal prosecutors charged one current and four former city employees Thursday with taking part in a hiring scheme at City Hall, in which political workers who did City Hall's bidding were awarded city jobs or promotions at such city departments as Water, Streets and Sanitation and Aviation.
Robert Sorich, 42, who was initially charged in July, ran Daley's patronage office and allegedly oversaw a list of thousands of people who filled city jobs. The list noted which jobs they held and who their source of political clout was. Those jobs were supposed to be free of politics under the federal court's Shakman decree.
Sorich's attorney, Thomas Durkin, said Sorich did nothing wrong but "had an incredibly difficult job and had to placate a variety of competing interests in order to make the city run efficiently.
"Chicagoans don't want their city to run like the post office or FEMA," Durkin said.
Two of Sorich's friends, Timothy McCarthy, 37, and Patrick Slattery, 42, were also charged with taking part in the hiring scheme. All three live in Bridgeport. Their attorneys said their clients would fight the charges.
FEMA? More Bush bashing?
Marathon Pundit has obtained copies of the indictments.
Although not charged, Victor Reyes, an important cog in the Daley Machine--he's the head of the Hispanic Democratic Organization-- has been implicated in the scandal. So has the HDO.
The HDO is an effective "get out the vote" group.
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