CHICAGO — Imprisoned former Ald. Edward Burke has become the latest Chicago Democrat to seek clemency from someone who, at first blush, would seem like an unlikely suitor: Republican President Donald Trump.

Burke, who was convicted of wide-ranging corruption charges in December 2023 and sentenced last year to two years in federal prison, filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney earlier this month, online records show.

The petition is pending, the records show, and there is no indication of what exact relief Burke is seeking. His criminal defense attorney, Chris Gair, told the Tribune on Thursday that he does not represent the former alderman in the matter and had no knowledge of who may have helped him file it.

Clemency petitions, which include requests for both full pardons and the commutation of federal sentences, can take months or years to resolve, though Trump has been known to grant them quickly if someone gets in his ear.

Earlier this month, he issued a full, blanket pardon to more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and granted a number of controversial clemency petitions for other individuals, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online drug marketplace.

While a Democrat from Chicago — a frequent punching bag for Trump — would seem to have little chance with the hyper-partisan president, they have had success before.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was able to woo Trump after a yearslong media campaign claiming he’d been prosecuted by the same FBI and Justice Department officials who at the time were investigating Trump.

In February 2020, Trump commuted the 14-year sentence for Blagojevich on sweeping corruption charges, springing him from prison more than four years early.

Like Blagojevich, who’d appeared on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show while awaiting trial, Burke has an intriguing connection to the New York-based real estate mogul.

Over more than a decade, including during Trump’s first term in the White House, Burke’s law firm, Klafter & Burke, filed a series of property tax appeals for the Trump Tower skyscraper in downtown Chicago, eventually saving them millions in real estate taxes.

Burke parlayed that success — and the media splash that followed — by incorporating it into his pitch for more law firm business. In fact, he was known for using a front page of the Sun-Times reporting on his Trump Tower work as his business card that he’d hand out to developers.

One such meeting was caught on a hidden camera being worn by then-Ald. Daniel Solis, the FBI mole whose undercover work led to charges against both Burke and then-House Speaker Michael Madigan, whose own racketeering trial is now in the hands of a jury.

The recordings showed Burke welcoming the post office developer, Harry Skydell, and his son at one City Hall meeting, then sliding two Klafter & Burke business cards toward them. Later, he was caught on camera smirking as he told Solis he was reluctant to help Skydell because “the cash register has not rung yet.”

Ironically, in the run-up to the trial in 2023, Burke’s lawyers argued that mentioning Donald Trump’s name would be unfair because the then-former president is “despised by a significant percentage of the population.”

“Mr. Burke’s legal work for (Trump) could cause many jurors to have an unfavorable impression of Mr. Burke and could create significant bias against him,” Burke’s legal team wrote. Making the Burke-Trump association is “fraught with the likelihood of unfair prejudice.”

U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall agreed with the defense and ruled that prosecutors had to redact any video or audio that made reference to Trump.

Burke, 81, one of the last vestiges of the old Democratic political machine, was convicted by a jury in December 2023 of racketeering conspiracy, bribery and attempted extortion in a series of schemes to use his considerable City Hall clout to try and win business from developers for his private property tax law firm.

He checked himself into the low security federal prison camp at Thomson, Illinois, in September to begin serving his two-year sentence.

Under federal rules, Burke must serve 85% of the 24-month term, which means with good behavior he’d be released in May 2026, when he would be 82.

Once released, Burke will serve a year on court-ordered supervision. He must also pay $65,000 in restitution to the owners of the Burger King franchise he was convicted of shaking down, as well as a $2 million fine imposed by Kendall.

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