The FBI secured permission to record the phone calls of former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle in October 2014, in the early stages of what turned out to be a massive public corruption investigation in which Solis Doyle was never charged, an agent testified Thursday.
The investigation was not related to the presidential campaign, instead focusing on Solis Doyle’s brother’s dealings in the Chicago City Council.
The disclosure came during the testimony of veteran FBI Special Agent Ryan McDonald, who in June 2016 confronted Doyle’s brother, then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis (25th). The FBI had wiretapped Danny Solis’ phone for several months in 2014 and 2015.
Along the way, McDonald testified that they overheard the siblings discussing how to split a $100,000 payment the developer of the Nobu Hotel offered to Patti Solis Doyle. That development wound up being featured in a 2016 FBI affidavit first obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times in January 2019.
The wiretap on Patti Solis Doyle’s phone was not fruitful and did not “last longer than several months,” McDonald told jurors, confirming his testimony was the first public disclosure of the recording.
Through a spokesperson, Solis Doyle declined the Sun-Times’ request for comment.
McDonald delivered his testimony in the racketeering conspiracy trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and his longtime ally, Michael McClain. Madigan is accused of leading a criminal enterprise designed to enhance his political power and enrich his allies.
Danny Solis was spotted in Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Thursday and was expected to take the witness stand in short order. He began cooperating with the FBI in 2016 and continued until the Chicago Sun-Times revealed his undercover work in January 2019.
In fact, McDonald confirmed for a prosecutor Thursday that Solis’ cover was “blown” by the newspaper’s reporting.
Patti Solis Doyle managed Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid. Her name surfaced Thursday along with Brian Hynes, a one-time legislative aide to Madigan, in relation to the Nobu Hotel project.
Doyle and Hynes were co-founders of a business founded in 2010 — Vendor Assistance Program — that aimed at helping the state of Illinois pay unpaid bills to vendors. She sold her interest in the company in 2016.
Under the program, VAP and the other companies front unpaid state contractors most of what Springfield owes them, and VAP and other “qualified purchasers” go on to pocket the late-payment penalties from the state.
For VAP, that business has proven to be wildly successful, especially at a time when the state owed heavily to many vendors. Disclosures the company is required to file with the state show that through July, VAP had collected nearly $396 million in late-payment penalties from Illinois taxpayers over more than a decade.
Solis Doyle grew up with her brother Danny Solis in the Pilsen neighborhood, attended Notre Dame High School for Girls on the Northwest Side and earned a communications degree from Northwestern University.
Danny Solis helped her land a job in City Hall, where she ended up working on campaigns for former city Treasurer Miriam Santos and former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Solis Doyle earned the trust of David Wilhelm, who managed Daley’s 1989 campaign as well as former President Bill Clinton’s first successful White House run in 1992.
Wilhelm brought Solis Doyle into the tight-knit political orbit of the Clinton family, where Solis Doyle started out as a scheduler for Hillary Clinton.
Solis Doyle went on to help run Clinton’s U.S. Senate campaigns, led Clinton’s political action committee and then managed her 2008 presidential campaign.
After Barack Obama beat Clinton for the nomination that year, Solis Doyle jumped to his campaign as chief of staff to then Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden. She was also an advisor on Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
For years, Solis Doyle has lived in Washington, D.C., where she’s head of U.S. public affairs for a massive advisory firm.
Contributing: Anthony Vazquez