FBI searched Ald. Jim Gardiner’s text messages amid probe into alleged $5,000 cash payment from developer, court records show

Federal investigators sought and were granted access to Northwest Side Ald. Jim Gardiner’s text messages a little over a year after he took office, as part of an investigation into whether he accepted a $5,000 payment from a developer in exchange for stalling a housing development in the 45th Ward, according to a search warrant application unsealed this week.

The partially redacted FBI search warrant application was made public Monday, as there is no indication Gardiner will be charged in connection with the alleged conduct. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Monday on the status of the investigation. As a general policy, the office does not confirm when an investigation ends without charges.

According to the July 24, 2020, affidavit, a cooperating witness saw Gardiner accept an envelope from a person while the two sat in the person’s black Mercedes Benz in May 2019.

According to the unsealed records, Gardiner then passed the envelope on to the owners of the West Lawrence Avenue building in which his ward office was located as a “down payment” on new windows the alderman wanted installed. One of the owners counted out $5,000 in cash in the envelope, the search warrant application states.

When the owner insisted on making a record of the $5,000 payment, Gardiner said “You don’t need to do that,” according to statements from the cooperating witness, outlined in the court documents. Gardiner then kicked the cooperating witness under the table when that person agreed it was important to log the money, according to the affidavit.

After Gardiner allegedly received the $5,000 from the developer, the cooperating witness told federal investigators it became clear Gardiner planned to delay a project in the ward to inflict unnecessary costs on that project’s builder, as a favor to the developer who provided the cash, according to the court records.

The developer said he had spent $20,000 preparing his own property to be the site of a senior living development, only for the person building that project to locate it elsewhere. Having wasted the money, the developer “wanted to get back at” that person, the witness said, according to the affidavit.

In September 2019, Block Club Chicago reported that Gardiner held a community meeting at the Copernicus Center in Jefferson Park to get feedback on The Point, a proposed Aldi grocery store and senior housing development on a vacant lot at Six Corners.

Shortly thereafter, Gardiner announced he would oppose the project until changes were made to the plan. Nearly a year later, the City Council approved the development, with Gardiner endorsing an amended plan. The approved plan, which is under construction, is a luxury residential development with a Target store as the anchor retailer.

The Tribune first reported in 2021 that federal investigators were looking into allegations Gardiner retaliated against political opponents and engaged in political corruption.

Gardiner won a second term last month, defeating Megan Mathias in a runoff election. He declined to comment Monday.

Even in the rough-and-tumble political world of the Chicago City Council, Gardiner courted an exceptional amount of controversy in his first term.

In 2021, he took the highly unusual step of apologizing on the council floor after leaked texts showed him using profane and offensive language to describe a gay colleague, a female city staffer and a female political consultant.

And this January, a sworn deposition was made public in a federal lawsuit against Gardiner that detailed how a former aide last autumn said the alderman obsessed over Facebook criticism and pledged to rid the ward of his detractors, who he referred to as “rats.”