John F. Harris (born 1962) is an American political aide and former chief of staff to the

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

, Rod Blagojevich. He resigned in December 2008 after being charged, along with Blagojevich, with

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity ...

Biography

Harris graduated from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

in 1984. He attended

Loyola University Chicago School of Law Loyola University Chicago School of Law is the law school of Loyola University Chicago, in Illinois. Established in 1909, by the Society of Jesus, the Roman Catholic order of the Jesuits, the School of Law is located in downtown Chicago. Loy ...

and graduated in 1987. From 1984 to 1992, Harris served as an intelligence officer and judge advocate general in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. He resigned his commission in 1992 and subsequently joined the administration of

Chicago mayor The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and ...

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

, where he served in many senior management positions and ultimately as budget director from 1996 to 2005. Among his many accomplishments, Harris negotiated and launched the multi-billion-dollar O'Hare International Airport modernization program and led the city's successful transaction to sell the

Chicago Skyway Interstate 90 (I-90) in the US state of Illinois runs roughly northwest-to-southeast through the northern part of the state. From the Wisconsin state line at South Beloit, it heads south to Rockford before heading east-southeast to the ...

for $1.8 billion to the private capital joint venture team of Cintra/Macquarie. In 2005, Harris joined the administration of the Governor of Illinois as chief of staff, Rod Blagojevich.

Involvement with Rod Blagojevich

On December 9, 2008, Harris and his boss Governor Rod Blagojevich were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as solicitation of bribery. Harris resigned days later. Harris would enter a guilty plea soon after his arrest and was granted a deal after he agreed to testify against Blagojevich. In a subsequent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit regarding the convictions of former Governor Blagojevich, the court reversed a conviction for the former governor based on the wire fraud count which had been the sole basis of Harris' guilty plea. The court noted that the practice of "

logrolling Logrolling is the trading of favors, or ''quid pro quo'', such as vote trading by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member. In organizational analysis, it refers to a practice in which different o ...

" for political purposes, including the trading of favors like jobs, was not criminal activity. This has led legal and political commentators to speculate that Harris may have pleaded guilty to conduct which was not criminal at all. However, it is unclear if Harris is left with any legal remedy to clear himself. On March 28, 2012, Harris was sentenced by judge James B. Zagel. In contrast to the 14-year sentence Judge Zagel previously handed down to former Governor Blagojevich, Harris was sentenced to a period of 10 days' incarceration, two years' supervised release and a $1,000 fine. In imposing the unusually lenient sentence, Judge Zagel noted that the former Governor had worn down his staff and demonstrated signs of "mental instability." Judge Zagel observed that other than leaving the administration earlier if he were in Harris's shoes, he might have acted the same way. The judge also acknowledged an unusual number of character reference letters in support of Harris that had been received from prominent city and state political and business figures.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, John F. 1962 births Living people Northwestern University alumni Loyola University Chicago School of Law alumni Illinois politicians convicted of crimes Illinois Democrats