CHICAGO — State Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago, has agreed to a deal with federal prosecutors that would avoid a retrial and see the three charges against him — including bribery, wire fraud and lying to the FBI — dropped a year from now.
Jones’ deferred prosecution agreement, revealed during a Thursday court hearing, requires him to pay a $6,800 fine and admit to making a false statement to FBI agents during a surprise 2019 interview at his home.
The senator, who’s served 16 years in Springfield since replacing his father, former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., was accused of agreeing to take bribes from red-light camera entrepreneur-turned-government cooperator Omar Maani in 2019. In exchange, the feds alleged Jones held back legislation he’d introduced that was harmful to the red-light camera industry.
Read more: Jury deadlocks, mistrial declared in federal bribery case of Sen. Emil Jones III
But only one of the alleged bribes, a job for Jones’ former intern, ever came to fruition. And the senator's high-stakes turn on the witness stand complicated prosecutors’ narrative that his red-light camera bill didn’t pass because of Maani’s offers.
After nearly 23 hours of deliberation at the end of Jones’ April trial, a jury deadlocked and U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood declared a mistrial.
In June, prosecutors said they intended to try Jones’ case again, including “a few additional witnesses,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri. But the deferred prosecution agreement means Jones’ retrial, scheduled for Jan. 12, will be canceled.
Read more: Feds to retry Sen. Emil Jones after mistrial on bribery, lying to FBI charges
Jones, who testified during trial that he’d “never had an opponent to run against” since he replaced his father on the ballot in 2008, is now facing challenges from two Democrats in Illinois’ March 17 primary.
On Thursday, Jones told Capitol News Illinois that he wished the deferred prosecution agreement could’ve been executed earlier this year but was glad to put the case behind him.
“Just happy that I'm able to move on, have a fair election,” he said. “Looking forward to getting back to serving the people. Sitting on some committees, passing some bills that’ll benefit my district.”
Jones was removed from Senate leadership after his 2022 indictment but said it was too soon to have conversations about being reinstated. He won reelection six weeks after being charged, running unopposed.
Alleged bribes
Jones’ trial pulled back the curtain on a wider probe the feds had focused on the senator’s longtime colleague, state Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago. Maani, the FBI mole, had also bribed Sandoval. And in June 2019, Sandoval invited Jones to dinner with him and Maani at a suburban steakhouse, during which Sandoval hinted at benefits he received from Maani.
On secretly recorded video captured by Maani at the dinner, Sandoval told Jones that Maani “wants to be your friend.”
Over another two dinners that summer, Maani offered a campaign contribution to the senator in the same conversation he asked about Jones’ willingness to drop or modify legislation that called for a statewide study of red-light camera systems in Illinois. Maani testified he worried a study could be a “prelude to a ban” on his industry.
Read more: At Jones trial, jury hears lawmaker bringing colleague into fold of ‘personal benefits’
But Jones was more interested in Maani hiring his former intern, Christopher Katz.
“If you can raise me five grand, that’d be good,” Jones said on a secret video recording of his dinner with Maani on July 17, 2019, after Maani pushed him to come up with a number for the proposed campaign donation. “But most importantly, I have an intern working in my office and I’m trying to find him another job, another part-time job while he’s in school. … Do you all have any positions available?”
Read more: Sen. Jones sent spending money to former intern before getting him job feds say was a bribe
Maani would eventually hire Katz directly, telling Jones later in the summer that he didn’t have much work for him to do at the time.
“I just wanted to make sure that he’s the type of kid that, you know, when he gets a check and he’s not doing anything right away, that he’s, you know, he’s not gonna be spooked by that,” Maani said on an Aug. 12, 2019, wiretapped call. “He’s not gonna be weird and stuff. … Is he — would he be cool with that for a while? I mean, does he get it? Does he understand this?”
“Yeah, but um, make sure we find him some work,” Jones replied.
Read more: Prosecutors say Sen. Emil Jones III’s alleged bribery was ‘crystal clear’ as the case goes to jury | Though wary of FBI mole’s ‘used car salesman’ vibe, Sen. Emil Jones III testifies he felt obliged to work with him
Though he didn’t produce any work product, Katz ended up receiving a total of $1,800 in weekly payments from Maani over the course of six weeks until the feds’ investigation — and Maani’s role in it — was made public on Sept. 24, 2019.On that same day, FBI agents raided Sandoval’s offices and home. Before his death in late 2020, Sandoval pleaded guilty to bribery and tax fraud and was cooperating with the government. But in the hours before the public raids, a pair of agents came knocking at Jones’ front door to ask about both Sandoval and Maani.
Jones denied having discussed with Maani how a campaign contribution could be made without having it publicly reported, though another secretly recorded video played during trial showed Maani asking Jones how he could contribute to the senator’s campaign without it having to be reported on public campaign finance records.
During an August 2019 dinner between Jones and Maani, the senator again turned the conversation from a campaign contribution to a job for Katz. Maani never wrote a check to Jones for $5,000 or otherwise.
Read more: FBI mole told Sen. Emil Jones III to suggest ‘creative’ way to accept $5K lest it ‘look goofy’
Jones also made the risky decision to testify in his own defense. The senator told the jury that he was trying to avoid taking money from Maani, saying he gave off the vibe of a “used car salesman” and that he was aware Maani was trying to bribe him. But he also contradicted testimony from Katz, who downplayed his relationship with the senator, while Jones said they were close.
During his surprise interview with the FBI, Jones also denied knowing that Katz was getting paid, despite he and Maani agreeing that $15 an hour was fair during their last dinner six weeks prior.
Read more: Sen. Emil Jones III takes witness stand in his own defense at federal corruption trial | Jones testifies that FBI asked him to wear a wire on hospital CEO, other lawmakers
Other hung juries
Jones’ mistrial was the third high-profile federal public corruption trial in seven months to end in a hung jury. In February, jurors in former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s case deadlocked on six of the 23 counts while convicting him on 10 and acquitting on seven. And in September 2024, a judge had to declare a mistrial after jurors deadlocked on all five counts alleging former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza bribed Madigan in 2017.
La Schiazza also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the feds earlier this fall, avoiding a retrial that had also been scheduled for January.
Read more: Ex-AT&T Illinois head could see bribery charges dismissed under agreement with feds
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