Tales from the tapes in State Rep. Derrick Smith corruption trial

State Rep. Derrick Smith endured a torrid day in court Monday as federal prosecutors presented their most damning evidence against him so far — a series of secretly-recorded conversations in which he appears to solicit a $7,000 bribe.

Heavily previewed in opening statements at the start of the West Side Democrat’s trial last week, the wiretapped conversations in which a laughing Smith refers to the alleged bribe as “cheddar” and vows, “I don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing” may yet prove fatal to his defense.

But they also suggested that organizing a bribe in Chicago politics isn’t as easy as some cynics might think.

Prosecutors on Monday played a dozen of the 126 recordings that a campaign worker who doubled as a paid FBI informant made in 2012 before Smith was finally charged with supporting a day care business’s state grant application in return for a bribe

In each, a rambling Smith is repeatedly sidetracked, chatting about everything from the death of singer Whitney Houston to his boast that “I don’t need no bodyguard — God is my bodyguard.”

Even once he agreed to write a letter supporting the grant application, telling the government mole to ask for $8,000 so “there’s room for you to negotiate,” he continued to discuss the alleged bribe for another three weeks before taking action, according to the recordings.

The tapes show Smith alternating between caution, such as one section in which he was careful not to refer to the size of the alleged bribe, and bravado, including his brag of how he handled a visit to the day care business he was allegedly shaking down.

“That was cool how I played it,” he told the mole, who has only been identified in court as “Pete,” a twice-convicted felon.

Also damaging to Smith’s defense that he was essentially entrapped by the mole was FBI agent Bryan Butler’s testimony Monday that Smith admitted after his arrest that he’d “effed up” by taking the $7,000 in return for supporting the grant application.

Jurors were shown a waiver Smith signed after his arrest, showing that he understood his Miranda rights but agreed to talk to the feds without his lawyer present.

More recordings are expected to be played Tuesday when the trial continues.