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* Yesterday…
Federal prosecutors told a judge this morning they still anticipate filing additional charges against ex-state Rep. Luis Arroyo. He was charged via information in January with bribing a then-state senator and was expected to plead guilty.
— Jason Meisner (@jmetr22b) August 24, 2020
Seems a little unusual that more charges coming against Arroyo. Typically, when a defendant is charged via a criminal information, he intends to plead guilty and so the discovery review is mostly to iron out any disagreements over sentencing.
— Jason Meisner (@jmetr22b) August 24, 2020
* More from Capitol News Illinois…
Prosecutors first indicated in June that additional, related charges could be forthcoming.
Arroyo, a Chicago Democrat, was charged in October 2019 with one felony count of bribery for allegedly attempting to pay $2,500 to an unnamed state senator, with promises of more to come, in exchange for the senator’s support of gambling legislation that would have benefitted one of Arroyo’s lobbying clients. The senator was wearing a wire at the time for federal investigators.
Chicago-area media outlets, citing unnamed sources, have reported that the unnamed state senator was Terry Link, a Democrat from Indian Creek in Lake County, although Link has strongly denied any involvement. Link was recently charged in an unrelated case with tax evasion for filing a false 2016 federal tax return.
Arroyo has pleaded not guilty to his charges, but he resigned his office Nov. 1, just ahead of a special House investigative hearing to determine whether he should be expelled from the General Assembly.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 9:54 am
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New lesser charges with original charges dropped upon cooperation?
– MrJM
Comment by @misterjayem Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 10:04 am
New charges might find new insight and direction or they may be a compiling of additional charges found during the initial look at Arroyo and now the Feds are… compelled… to add these too.
Does this mean Arroyo has been less than helpful?
Dunno
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 10:05 am
Usually (and these a different times) federal prosecutors try to avoid impacting elections when it comes to the investigation of politicians. So moving forward with something that was rock solid when the election was a year away would be proper form rather than waiting until they had all of the pieces together to make the proprietorial standards for other charges.
Regardless I do hope Arroyo was cooperative, but I also root for white collar criminals having the book thrown at them which is usually note the case.
This dude took an oath.
Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 10:19 am
Though October 27th does scream “October surprise!” I do wonder at that point due to mail in ballots and just how folks are forming their opinions during this election season if having an October Surprise that isn’t a late September surprise would have much impact on the election.
Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 10:21 am
Just can’t help but wonder if the new charges involve ComEd-
Comment by TB’s Electric Slide Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 10:25 am
so many cases that overlap and maybe something popped up that he did not bring up to them causing more charges. which or whatever, bad things happen to bad people, on occasion. he’s not a nice man.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 10:36 am
Any former federal prosecutors around? Drury, if you’re out there, you don’t count.
Since the anticipated guilty plea didn’t come after the information, is this an indication that Arroyo didn’t cooperate (or wasn’t truthful) and therefore the Feds are going after more with him? Genuinely asking…
Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 10:44 am
Sometimes this happens when a defendant is trying to negotiate away potential charges against someone close to them.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 11:06 am
Another possibility is that he is cooperating about a different (but somewhat related) crime, and the G wants to bring a larger, superseding charge with new defendants.
Arroyo could then plead guilty to the new charge. That allows the prosecutor to argue to the jury, tacitly, that one of the co-conspirators, who you saw testify, has already admitted this is a crime and will be sentenced for it.
Again, that’s just a possibility. There may be nothing more to it than a straight guilty plea after reviewing all the discovery.
Comment by Keyrock Tuesday, Aug 25, 20 @ 12:55 pm