Mayor Rahm Emanuel held his first round of Washington meetings Monday with senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration, a trip his office described as laying the foundation for developing relationships with the Republican White House.
Emanuel met with new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive who is the director of Trump’s National Economic Council. The mayor also met with Dina Powell, Trump’s senior counselor for economic initiatives, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and representatives of Amtrak and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The mayor did not meet with Trump, and was scheduled to return to Chicago on Monday night, his office said.
Emanuel aides did not respond to a request to interview the mayor, and his administration released few details beyond describing the meetings as being "on topics from public safety to public transportation."
Perhaps the most noteworthy was the sit-down with Sessions, which comes after the Justice Department concluded its investigation into the Chicago Police Department last month and as Trump has directed his attorney general to help the administration crack down on sanctuary cities such as Chicago.
Emanuel’s meeting with the nation’s top law enforcement official also followed weeks of Trump publicly bashing Chicago’s struggles with a surge in violent crime.
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The Justice Department described the meeting as Sessions sitting down with Emanuel "in the attorney general’s conference room to discuss what might be done to combat the shootings and murders in that city and bring back proactive community policing."
Chicago’s gun violence came up when Emanuel met with Trump in New York in December as the president was preparing to take office, and the mayor has said he would welcome additional federal resources to address the violent crime problem.
"Public safety is a top priority for everyone, and over the course of the day the mayor reiterated his request for added federal resources including ex-offender programs, mentoring and increased federal gun prosecution in Chicago, as well as additional federal agents," mayoral spokesman Matt McGrath said in a statement.
Sessions took over the Justice Department as Chicago is negotiating a possible federal consent decree following a civil rights investigation into the Police Department’s use of force. The 13-month investigation resulted in a 164-page report that sharply criticized the city’s police force, concluding that officers were poorly trained and quick to use excessive and deadly force — most often against African-Americans and Latinos — without facing consequences.
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In response to the investigation, Emanuel agreed to enter talks toward a court-enforced agreement with then-President Barack Obama’s Justice Department on a number of reforms. Whether such a final agreement is reached on a federal consent decree, however, is less certain under Trump, who has supported aggressive law enforcement, and Sessions, who has criticized consent decrees in the past.
Emanuel’s office declined to say Monday whether the mayor asked Sessions if he still intended to purse a consent decree with the city.
The mayor’s meeting with Sessions also follows a Trump executive order that directed his new attorney general to take aggressive action toward sanctuary cities such as Chicago, where local laws prohibit government workers and police officers from asking about residents’ immigration status. Trump directed Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to ensure sanctuary cities "are not eligible to receive federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes."
It’s not clear how much money could be at stake for Chicago, but cutting off all federal funding to sanctuary cities would require action by the Republican-controlled Congress. Last year, Chicago received a little more than $1 billion in federal grant funding for myriad programs, including early childhood education, transportation, policing, health initiatives, public assistance programs and disaster management. It’s unknown how much of that $1 billion could be deemed necessary for law enforcement, as laid out by Trump’s order.
The city, however, does receive millions under Sessions’ jurisdiction at the Justice Department. Justice officials issued a report last year that stated Chicago could stand to lose nearly $29 million in annual agency grants if it were to be found in violation of federal laws on detaining people to be turned over to immigration agents for possible deportation.
bruthhart@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BillRuthhart
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