Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III testified Thursday that federal agents asked him to wear a wire against Roseland Community Hospital CEO Tim Egan, a disclosure that immediately derailed testimony in the South Side Democrat’s federal bribery trial.
Jones has occupied the witness stand in the trial ever since Tuesday afternoon. After jurors returned to the courtroom Thursday, Jones spent all of 16 minutes there before he made his comment about Egan.
Prosecutors objected, prompting a private sidebar among the lawyers with U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood. The sidebar dragged on for about 20 minutes before Wood sent the jury out of the room.
The judge later called a recess to let lawyers speak with their respective teams. Eventually, the lawyers returned to the courtroom and resumed the sidebar with the judge. Their talks continued more than an hour after Jones’ disclosure.
After the sidebar, the judge told the jury “to disregard the portion of Mr. Jones’ last answer, where he described actions that he was asked to take by the FBI agent.”
“That portion of the testimony is stricken,” he said. “The jury must not consider that testimony in any way.”
Jones did not say why officials would have wanted him to wear a wire against Egan. Calls seeking comment from Egan and Roseland hospital officials were not immediately returned.
Prosecutors say Jones agreed to protect a red-light camera businessman in the Illinois Senate in exchange for $5,000 and a job for a former intern. Jones had filed a bill in February 2019 that the executive believed was bad for business.
The FBI confronted Jones about the alleged arrangement in September 2019. Jones says he wound up meeting again with FBI and IRS agents twice around February 2020. He decided to cooperate with the feds during the period between those two meetings, Jones testified Thursday.
“You know, I was thinking about my career and all the good things I have done,” Jones told the jury, “and I was just confused.”
During the second meeting in 2020, Jones testified that officials were “putting several pictures of people, you know, in front of me. And I had to write down who they were and initial it.”
“Then they put a picture of Tim Egan in front of me,” Jones testified. “He’s the CEO of Roseland Hospital. And Agent [Timothy] O’Brien basically instructed me that he wanted me to wear a wire” on Egan.
