Emanuel's lawyers turn over documents on residency
CHICAGO — Attorneys for Rahm Emanuel have handed over hundreds of pages of documents to Chicago election officials ahead of a hearing where the former White House chief of staff is expected to testify about whether he is eligible to run for mayor.
The former Chicago congressman is trying to fend off opponents' claims that he isn't eligible because he hasn't been a Chicago resident for a year, which is a requirement to run for Chicago's mayor. Emanuel lived in Washington for two years while working for President Barack Obama and returned to Chicago in October after Mayor Richard Daley said he wouldn't seek a seventh term.
Emanuel has dismissed questions about his residency saying that even while living in Washington, he owned a home in Chicago, paid property taxes and voted here, among other things.
But the documents released late Saturday by the Chicago Board of Elections showed his original 2009 Illinois tax returns were filed as a "part-year resident." The returns were amended on Nov. 24, after his candidacy was challenged.
"The original return's statements regarding part-year residency were not accurate and were inconsistent with our continued payments of Illinois estimated tax, both in the original 2009 return and subsequently," the form reads. "The amended return makes clear that we were full year residents of Illinois in 2009 and it reports all of our income."
The released documents also include e-mails, Emanuel's birth certificate from a Chicago hospital, bills, Chicago voter registrations and tax returns. They could factor into a decision at a Monday hearing on whether Emanuel's wife, Amy Rule, will testify. Emanuel is expected to testify Tuesday.
Among the hundreds of pages are e-mails between Rule and a real estate agent who helped the couple lease their home. An e-mail from Rule in June 2009 insists that home will not be sold.
"You should know we are not leasing with any remote potential to purchase. So please don't lead people to believe that this is or might be an option," Rule wrote in the e-mail.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the documents also said that the Emanuel family left "cherished personal possessions" at their home, including clothes the children wore home from the hospital when they were born, Rule's wedding dress and an overcoat handed down from Emanuel's grandfather.
A copy of Emanuel's 2009 tax return showed he earned $227,784 in income.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the documents also included a transcript of an April interview with PBS talk show host Charlie Rose where Emanuel said he would like to run for mayor if Daley decided he didn't want the job.
More than a dozen candidates are vying to replace Daley, including former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, former Chicago school board president Gery Chico, City Clerk Miguel del Valle and state Sen. James Meeks, the pastor of a megachurch on Chicago's South Side. Emanuel isn't the only mayoral candidate facing ballot challenges.
The election is Feb. 22.