Days before the Chicago City Council's internal watchdog departed his post Monday, the FBI came to his office and picked up his computers and the bulk of his files, Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan said.
The action came as the result of a subpoena asking Khan to appear before a grand jury last Thursday and bring "all documents ... concerning any investigation referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Khan said that he instead agreed with the FBI on a date and time to pick up the records.
Khan would not specify the nature of the FBI's work but did say that during his time in office he had referred matters that "are criminal in nature" to outside agencies, including the FBI, the Illinois attorney general, the U.S. attorney's office and the IRS.
"I don't know if and when these cases will result in charges," Khan said. "I simply would like to see them resolved appropriately, and then the public can see what exactly the (office of legislative inspector general) worked on and what the results of those investigations are."
Khan's four-year term expired Monday, and aldermen chose not to reappoint him. Instead, they impaneled a committee to seek out a replacement just days before his departure in a decision that leaves the watchdog office vacant for the foreseeable future.
"This office wouldn't be closing if they wanted oversight," said Khan, who added that the best solution would be for city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson to take over his remaining records and duties. "There is no reason to close this office. This office should have remained open. They could have had me stay temporarily, or they could have a replacement here on this date to make sure this office stayed open so citizens could file a complaint.
"And here we are, now looking for another LIG on a hastily put together blue-ribbon panel just this past weekend. So there was no reason for this to happen. I think it merely reflects their true motivation when it comes to ethical oversight here in Chicago."
Many aldermen have been highly critical of Khan, contending that he did not use enough discretion in his investigations to separate the wheat from the chaff and that he has repeatedly overstepped his bounds. But Khan has maintained that those critical aldermen were upset only because he tried to do his job, despite the legislative and financial limits placed on him.
"I think the system here was rigged from Day One," Khan said. "I think no one intended for this office to succeed, and the only people who didn't get the memo were me and my staff. We've tried hard for four years to make sure that oversight exists here for this elected body."
Khan, an attorney who hails from New York, took over an office created by aldermen in May 2010 after they rejected oversight from the city inspector general. It then took 18 months to hire Khan and get him in place.
In July 2013, Khan ran afoul of Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, after word leaked out that Khan's office had accused him of improperly firing a woman in 2009 after she complained about political work being done in his ward office and paid a fired chief of staff $13,497 more than he should have. Moore later said he talked to the FBI about the allegations but called them "baseless" and said he was not a target.
Last year, Ald. Patrick O'Connor, 40th, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's floor leader, and Khan were at odds. O'Connor pushed through an ordinance that thwarted Khan's effort to give him authority to launch his own investigations, without a complaint, into council campaign finances.
That action came during an investigation, spurred by two sworn complaints to Khan's office, involving allegations that O'Connor violated the city's rules on soliciting campaign contributions, contract inducement, conflict of interest, improper influence and fiduciary duty, according to a confidential memo obtained by the Tribune.
Khan said Monday that he recently completed a report requested by the Board of Ethics that concluded "$282,000 in potential campaign finance violations for 29 different aldermen" during 2013.
In keeping with Chicago's colorful political history, O'Connor later called Khan an "idiot," and Moore recently told the Tribune he was "taking up a collection for (Khan), to get him a one-way ticket back to New York."
Politico Illinois first reported that the FBI took Khan's documents.
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