Jurors in the bribery trial of state Sen. Emil Jones III on Thursday watched the rest of a 2019 undercover video from a downtown steakhouse where a red light camera company executive told Jones he’d raise him $5,000 and hire his legislative intern, but that he needed to “keep it quiet.”
“Especially in this day and age, keep it quiet. Is that cool?” SafeSpeed co-founder Omar Maani, who was secretly cooperating with the FBI, told Jones at the July 2019 meeting at Steak 48.
“Yeah that’s fine,” Jones replied.
Maani explained that his fellow executives at SafeSpeed, including CEO Nikki Zollar, were a little “goofy” when it came to making campaign contributions that could be connected directly back to them, so it was better to keep their relationship secret for the time being.
Among Maani’s ideas was to sponsor a White Sox fundraiser for Jones that would not have to be recorded as a specific contribution. He also said he wanted to hire Jones’ intern without others knowing the connection.
“That’s why we’re meeting like this, you know?” Maani said on the recording. “I don’t want to deal with the lobbyists or any bull(expletive) like that. You know what I’m saying?”
“Yeah,” Jones said, slicing into his steak as the hidden camera rolled from somewhere low on the table.
“We’re gonna know each other for a very long time, building our relationship and I will be there for you every time,” Maani said.
Jones III, 46, is charged with bribery, use of an interstate facility to solicit bribery and lying to federal agents. The most serious charge carries up to 10 years in prison, while the others have a five-year maximum term.
According to the charges, Jones, whose father, Emil Jones Jr., led the state Senate for years before orchestrating to have his son replace him in 2009, agreed to take $5,000 in contributions promised by Maani in exchange for his help with legislation Maani’s company, SafeSpeed LLC, wanted altered in Springfield.
Jones also is accused of pushing Maani to hire his legislative intern for a $15-an-hour part-time job at SafeSpeed. And he later lied to the FBI about his contacts with Maani and his knowledge of his intern’s salary, the charges allege.
If convicted, Jones would be forced to resign under Illinois law and would almost certainly forfeit any future pension.
In his opening statement to the jury Wednesday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri said Jones “knew exactly what he was doing” when he agreed to keep evidence of the relationship with Maani out of public view.
“This was politics for profit,” Kolluri said. “The crime here is that the defendant put his power as an Illinois senator up for sale and then lied about what he had done.”
Jones, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence. His lawyers have indicated they intend to argue that his actions were business as usual and that the government is trying to stretch political give-and-take into bribery.
Jones’ defense attorney Joshua Adams said in his opening remarks that Maani’s was a “serial briber” around the Chicago area, and he reminded the jury that Maani had agreed to cooperate with the government to avoid consequences for other charges against him.
“In exchange for wearing a recording device and following the FBI’s orders, he doesn’t have to spend one day in jail, one night in a federal prison,” Adams said. “He gets to walk away from all of this.”
The case hinges on a series of dinner meetings Maani recorded over a two-month period in 2019. The first, which the jury watched Wednesday, included Jones, Maani, and then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval, the powerful head of the Senate Transportation Committee, dining at Gibsons Steakhouse in Oak Brook that June.
Three weeks later, Maani and Jones met along at Steak 48. In a clip from that meeting played Wednesday, Maani asked the senator how much he wanted him to raise, saying he wanted to make sure he met “expectations.”
Asked on Thursday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Ardam why he said that, Maani told the jury in his experience, a politician can get mad when you don’t hit their mark.
“I’ve seen it many a time where people have been asked to give either a certain number and come up short and there would be very negative consequences,” Maani testified.
Ardam also asked Maani whether hiring Jones’ intern something he had suggested previously?
“No it caught me off guard a little bit,” Maani said, adding that it was Jones who came up with the $15-an-hour figure.
During the dinner, Maani explained to Jones the $5,000 would be no problem to raise.
“The only thing with me…is I don’t want it to look funky you know that our company is cutting you a check or I’m personally cutting you a check and then somebody asks some questions,” he said. “So if there is a creative way you could do it, I’m up for any suggestion…We have reporting requirements and everything …It would be from me to you. I wouldn’t include my company on this ’cause they’re goofy, you know. Nikki and them.”
Jones then asked Maani, what can I do for you?
“So last time you had a study that encompassed the whole state,” Maani said. “And then you amended it and then it just encompassed the city of Chicago I would ask if you would do that.”
Maani also asked him to tamp down Republican state Rep. David McSweeney, of Barrington, who had filed a series of anti-red light camera legislation.
After Jones agreed, Maani reassured him: “I’ll take care of the intern. I’ll take care of everything. but if you could just to that that would be phenomenal.”
“I got you,” Jones replied. “And I’ll protect you all from McSweeney.”
Then the waiter arrived with a baked potato and corn creme brulee — telling them it was a “specialty of the house.”
Days after the Steak 48 meeting, Jones emailed Maani his intern’s resume with a note of thanks.
“Omar, Had a great time at dinner last week,” he wrote, according to a copy shown to the jury. “Looking forward to the many more good times my friend. Again thank you for this opportunity for Christopher, his resume it’s attached. Emil.”
At the direction of the FBI, Maani later reached out to Jones and set up another meeting at Steak 48 on Aug. 9, 2019. Like the previous dinner, the hidden camera was set up somewhere low on the table, capturing Jones as he walked up to the table wearing a Puma T-shirt. He told Maani he’d been at flight school, learning to get his pilot’s license. Jones then ordered his usual, the Wagyu beef filet.
Under questioning from Ardam, Maani told the jury the Wagyu is “a lot more expensive” than other items on the menu.
Also Thursday, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood took up an emergency motion filed by the Tribune and Sun-Times objecting to any denial of access to the recordings and other exhibits published in court. Wood had taken the issue under advisement Wednesday after the defense objected to the release of evidence while the trial was ongoing, citing the potential to bias jurors who may see “snippets” of evidence on the news.
In the motion, filed late Wednesday, attorneys for the newspapers said there is lengthy court precedent giving the public and media the right to access information shown in open court. Delaying the release would also be a violation of long-standing constitutional protections, they said.
“There will be intense and legitimate public interest in this trial and a corresponding expectation that the press will keep the public informed of developments,” write attorneys Steve Mandell and Brian Saucier. “This is truly a matter of access delayed equating to access denied.”
Wood granted the access after Jones’ lead attorney, Victor Henderson, dropped his objection.
Originally Published: April 10, 2025 at 9:24 AM CDT
