A former top official of the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board has sued the Chicago Sun-Times for libel over stories published in 2020 regarding an anonymous complaint against him as the agency staff considered whether to award President Donald Trump a refund of more than $1 million on the property taxes for his Chicago tower.
Mauro Glorioso alleged the stories by investigative reporter Tim Novak defamed him and misrepresented the nature of the complaint about how the Trump case was handled. Glorioso worked for the agency for nearly 20 years, first as an administrative law judge, then as a board member and finally as its executive director and general counsel.
In October, Gov. J.B. Pritzker removed him from the agency amid the investigation and concerns about a backlog of cases. PTAB can overrule county officials’ decisions on property tax assessments, potentially reducing owners’ tax bills.
Glorioso’s suit, filed Jan. 5 in Cook County Circuit Court, names Sun-Times Media Holdings and Novak as defendants.
Steve Warmbir, interim editor-in-chief, said, “The Sun-Times stands by the accuracy of the stories.”
The suit said that, contrary to the articles, there “was no allegation in the anonymous complaint that Glorioso directed that a legal decision on the Trump Tower property tax appeal be driven by political motivations rather than the merits of the case.” The suit also said a hearing officer’s denial of the Trump Tower appeal was written in January 2018 when Glorioso was chairman of the five-member PTAB board, not the executive director, and without direct authority over agency staff.
The Sun-Times reported that Trump’s case was repeatedly put on the agenda of the agency’s board meetings, only to be deferred.
Trump’s appeal involving his building at 401 N. Wabash Ave. was handled by the law firm of Ald. Edward Burke (14th), currently under indictment on charges that he used his public position to gain legal business.
