Ex-state Sen. Terry Link gets probation for campaign-cash tax conviction

When Terry Link served in the Illinois Senate, he played poker at night with fellow Democrat Barack Obama and pushed big gambling deals by day in the General Assembly.

Perhaps all of that wheeling and dealing in Springfield taught Link, a Lake County Democrat, how to play his cards just right.

As part of a cooperation deal with prosecutors, Link, 76, avoided prison time when a federal judge sentenced him Wednesday to three years of probation for failing to pay taxes on campaign funds he tapped for personal use.

The relatively lenient outcome was a result of Link agreeing to wear a wire and help the FBI crack an elaborate bribery scheme that led to prison sentences for Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, and businessman James Weiss, the son-in-law of former Cook County Democratic Chairman Joe Berrios.

Link pleaded guilty in September 2020 to failing to report income on his tax returns to the IRS and spending more than $73,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses.

He also underreported income on returns for tax years 2012 through 2015, costing the IRS and Illinois Department of Revenue a total of about $83,000 in lost tax revenue, according to his plea agreement with prosecutors.

He was ordered to pay restitution, but he expects to keep his state pension of nearly $96,000 a year because a review determined his crime was not directly related to his official duties.

So far, Link has collected $297,548 in pension benefits.

“I made a mistake,” Link said, red-faced and choking up at times as he told U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland that he accepted responsibility.

Link’s sentencing brought to a close a political corruption case that first came to light with Arroyo’s arrest in October 2019 and was brazen even by Springfield standards.

At the time, Link had vehemently denied reports — including in the Tribune — that he was the cooperating state Senator A mentioned in the charges against Arroyo. He continued those denials up until he was called as a witness at Weiss’ trial in June 2023.

Federal sentencing guidelines had called for up to a year in prison for Link, but prosecutors instead asked for a sentence of probation, citing Link’s cooperation against Arroyo and Weiss.

“He assisted with investigations and did everything that the government asked him to do,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine O’Neill, who noted Link’s cooperation also included letting the FBI tape his phone calls.

In accepting the probation recommendation, Rowland said she appreciated that Link’s tax crime “was not directly related” to his official duties, but that it still sends “a terrible message to have taxpayers hear that someone in public service is not paying their taxes.”

The judge said it was also important that other elected officials understand that “criminal behavior of any sort is not tolerated.”

“How do we send a message to the next generation of elected officials that this is not a way to do business?” Rowland asked.

The judge also lamented the level of corruption that arises from Springfield, where apparently someone can walk up to a fellow elected official and “on a dime, you could say ‘What’s in it for me?’ and we’d be off to the races with a federal case.”

“That’s despicable,” Rowland said as Link appeared to nod in agreement.

Before the sentence was handed down, Link stood at a lectern and apologized, saying he never sought to cheat government.

“I’ve made hundreds of political speeches, and this is probably one of the hardest speeches I’ve had to make,” he told the judge.

Link said he was not an “affluent” person and always tried to look out for the people of his legislative district. “I did a lot of things that I thought were the right things,” Link said.

As he wrapped up his comments, a tearful Link told of knocking on the door when campaigning and a man thanked him for giving his daughter a legislative scholarship to a state university just as the family had hit hard times.

Link carefully explained he used a bipartisan selection process to keep himself arms-length from choosing which students received the scholarships, an apparent nod to how the now-eliminated program was abused so often by lawmakers who handed out tuition waivers to relatives, political pals and campaign donors.

He said he walked away from the constituent’s home feeling he had achieved his goal of helping people because he had “changed somebody’s life.”

After the sentencing, Link made it clear he didn’t want to be remembered for his tax-related crime but rather for the many bills he passed in his 24 years as a senator, adding he hoped his tombstone would say he sponsored Illinois’ public smoking ban.

Link, who resigned from the Senate shortly before pleading guilty, was the star witness against Weiss, telling the jury about Weiss’ and Arroyo’s efforts to pay him off to support legislation favorable to Weiss’ sweepstakes gaming business.

Weiss was convicted and sentenced last year to 5 1/2 years in prison.

Arroyo, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to bribery for his role in the scheme but did not agree to cooperate with prosecutors. He’s currently serving a nearly five-year sentence at a minimum-security facility in Florida, where he is due to be released in February 2026.

The investigation that ensnared Arroyo and Weiss was one of several blockbuster public corruption probes to go public in 2019.

According to court testimony, Weiss agreed to pay monthly $2,500 bribes to get language helping his sweepstakes gaming machine business added to state gambling legislation, first to Arroyo, a Chicago Democrat, and later to Link, who had been the chief Senate sponsor of a major casino gambling bill.

Unbeknown to both Arroyo and Weiss, Link was secretly cooperating with the FBI and captured a conversation in June 2019 with Arroyo at a Highland Park Wendy’s where the bribe payments were first discussed, as well as a later meeting where Arroyo delivered a $2,500 check from Weiss.

In a sentencing filing last month, Link’s attorney, Catharine O’Daniel, also asked for probation, calling his tax transgressions “an unfortunate chapter in an otherwise respectable and unblemished life.”

O’Daniel wrote that Link’s financial troubles began when he dipped into campaign funds to help out a longtime friend who had fallen on hard times and whose wife was seriously ill. Link made “frequent payments” to the friend over a period of years without a contract, “a promissory note or even an I.O.U.,” she wrote.

“At all times, Mr. Link intended to repay the campaign funds once (his friend) reimbursed him,” O’Daniel wrote. Sadly, she said, the friend’s wife and son both died, followed by Link’s friend, who developed cancer and died in December 2018 without ever having paid Link back.

O’Daniel said Link also used some of the campaign funds he withdrew for personal expenses, though she did not elaborate.

When the FBI approached him about his taxes, he “immediately agreed” to cooperate, participating in recorded conversations and meetings over a two-year period and testifying before a federal grand jury in October 2019, O’Daniel wrote.

“In word and in deed, Mr. Link has done everything in his power to right his wrong,” she said.

Link and Obama came into the Illinois Senate together in the mid-1990s and struck up a friendship that led to them playing poker with other players from the General Assembly after hours.

Link once said he believed some of Obama’s ability to work across the aisle was born during the regular poker nights.

“You hung your guns at the door and you sat down and talked about everything but politics,” Link was quoted saying in a 2016 article in the Tribune. “It was just six or seven guys sitting together for an evening and forming a relationship. We have lost that.”

Link made no reference to Obama during Wednesday’s hearing, even though the two men had stayed in touch at least while the former president was in the White House.

Nor did Link request that any other officials write character references, preferring to gather comments from people unassociated with public life.

The decision was a point that Rowland said she appreciated.

It was unlike what was reveled only a day earlier in the perjury case of Tim Mapes, the ex-chief of staff for indicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

A 181-page batch of character letters made public on Tuesday showed a who’s who of political power brokers had written a separate judge requesting leniency for Mapes, who received a 30-month prison sentence for lying to a grand jury during a federal corruption probe of Madigan.

Among the letter writers were a former chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, a sitting appellate court justice, a former congressmen, the state auditor general and a batch of ex-lawmakers.

Standing outside of Rowland’s courtroom after Wednesday’s sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu, who heads the office’s public corruption team, shook hands with Link and thanked him for his cooperation.

As he walked down the hallway, Link said: “I’m glad it’s over.”