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Jon Seidel

Federal courts reporter

Jon Seidel writes about federal courts and legal affairs for the Chicago Sun-Times. He has covered several high-profile trials, including of former Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke, R&B superstar R. Kelly, ex-Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, onetime Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson and Christopher Vaughn. He also covered the prosecutions of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Heather Mack. He is the author of Second City Sinners.

The former alderman’s wife, Anne Burke, served as chief justice of the state’s highest court for three years before her tenure ended in 2022.
President Joe Biden nominated Perry in June 2023 to replace former U.S. Attorney John Lausch. But she has since waited eight months to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, longer than the last eight men to hold the position — with no end in sight.
John Banuelos is now one of nearly 50 Illinois residents — and the second this week — to be charged as part of the massive criminal investigation that resulted from the Capitol riot.
Lance Michael Ligocki is now one of nearly 50 Illinois residents charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
The feds agreed that the Vernon Hills Democrat deserved probation despite his tax crimes, asking U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland for the light sentence in a memo last week.
The nation’s high court reversed a Colorado Supreme Court decision to knock Trump from that state’s ballot.
Instead of hiring an actual hitman, Venkatesh Bhogireddy wound up enlisting an undercover ATF agent who posed as a motorcycle gang member named “Joe.”
Cook County Judge Tracie Porter put her ruling on hold until Friday, expecting Trump’s lawyers to appeal. They did so hours after the decision was handed down. For now, nothing has changed at the ballot box. If Porter’s ruling does go into effect, she ordered that “any votes cast” for Trump “be suppressed.”
Prosecutors have accused defense attorneys for the four people convicted of conspiring to bribe Michael Madigan of “claiming victory prematurely.” But one defense attorney predicted that “the convictions are not going to stand.”