The campaign contribution records and ethics statements of Mayor Harold Washington and Clarence McClain, his controversial former aide, were among 22 documents subpoenaed Friday by a federal grand jury investigating suspected corruption in Chicago city government.
Subpoenas also were issued for the political campaign records and ethics statements of Morgan Finley, Clerk of the Circuit Court; five aldermen who have aligned themselves with the mayor in the Chicago City Council; and those of State Rep. William Shaw (D., Chicago) and his brother, Robert, a former 9th Ward alderman.
Also subpoenaed were the campaign records of John E. Adams, the former deputy revenue director who was fired from his job in the Washington administration after he allegedly admitted accepting a $10,000 payment from an undercover FBI informant who infiltrated political circles here and has reportedly been videotaped with politicians.
The five aldermen whose campaign records were subpoenaed are: William Beavers (7th), Perry Hutchinson (9th), Marian Humes (8th), Wallace Davis Jr.
(27th) and Clifford P. Kelley (20th). The names of William and Robert Shaw had not been connected to the investigation until the subpoenas were issued. They could not be reached for comment.
The subpoenas, served by agents of the Internal Revenue Service, called for documents covering the period from Jan. 1, 1982, through last Monday. They were served on the Cook County Clerk`s office, repository of ethics and campaign statements required of political figures by law.
Since elements of the federal investigation became public in December, the growing scandal has stunned the Washington administration and has forced the mayor to respond almost daily to new reports concerning alleged wrongdoing by present or former members of his staff.
Although the mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing, his top advisers have conceded that the investigation has damaged him politically. One cabinet-level administration source has said that the publicity surrounding the case has put the mayor ”almost constantly on the defensive.”
This week, Washington`s top legal adviser, Corporation Counsel James Montgomery, resigned, giving as the reason his desire to spend full time representing the family of a man killed by Las Vegas police, a case he accepted before entering the administration three years ago.
Some City Hall sources have said that Montgomery became a political embarrassment to the mayor and that his power was eroded by allegations that he knew about the $10,000 payment to Adams but failed to report it to law enforcement officials. Adams reportedly has admitted accepting the payment from the FBI informant, Michael Raymond, who had been posing as a corrupt businessman seeking city contracts.
Thomas Coffey, another Washington cabinet member who resigned two weeks ago, said in interviews Friday that he believes politics played a role in launching the federal investigation.
Coffey contended that Dan Webb, who was U.S. attorney here when the investigation began, would be a likely Republican candidate in the 1987 mayoral election and that a Republican presidential administration has initiated federal investigations of city governments controlled by Democrats in Los Angeles, Detroit and Washington D.C., as well as Chicago.
”None of us are naive enough to expect this is an accident,” said Coffey about the investigation. ”I am not trying to impugn anyone`s reputation, but politics is politics. Whether it`s calculated or not, it is setting up.”
Coffey rejected speculation that his resignation was related to the administration`s handling of the investigation.
Coffey`s comments came during the taping of the ”Newsmakers” program, to be shown on WBBM-TV (Channel 2) at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
The resignations of Coffey and Montgomery, along with the loss of two other advisers, has shrunk the mayor`s inner circle of advisers who have been with him since his 1983 mayoral campaign.
Ira Edelson technically continues as Washington`s $1-a-year chief financial adviser, but he has effectively been cut from the Washington circle after reportedly telling federal investigators that Montgomery did not report all he knew about the $10,000 payment to Adams.
Another adviser whose public access to the mayor has been virtually eliminated is McClain, who resigned his $69,001 City Hall job in 1983 after reports were published about his three misdemeanor vice convictions and that he was delinquent in paying real estate taxes and water bills.
Earlier this week, judges in Cook County and in Milwaukee issued temporary restraining orders freezing McClain`s assets after Daley`s office argued that McClain had made ”substantial” deposits in four Milwaukee banks. McClain, who is being sued for unpaid property taxes and other debts, recently transferred more than $180,000 from Chicago to Milwaukee banks, according to sources familiar with those court actions this week.
In Chicago, McClain was ordered on Wednesday by Cook County Judge Robert Dempsey to submit by 2 p.m. on Friday all documents concerning the ownership of three buildings on which Daley`s office contends he owes $60,000 in unpaid county taxes.
McClain responded to the judge`s order by invoking, in writing, the constitutional protections against self-incrimination. Dempsey also has ordered McClain to appear in Daley`s office on Monday for a deposition on the matter.
