Councilman Jack Kelly To Skip Council's Weekly Meeting Today

Don’t look for City Councilman Jack Kelly this morning in Council’s weekly session. With his former chief of staff, Chris Wright, on trial for federal corruption charges, Kelly is taking the day off.

“With the very real possibility in mind that the Councilman will be asked to testify today, he along with this attorney, George Bochetto, made the decision late last week to request a leave of absence from City Council today,” said John Cerrone, Kelly’s new chief of staff, who has been monitoring the federal trial.

Opening arguments are about to start in the case against Wright, Kelly’s one-time campaign treasurer, Andy Teitelman, and two of Kelly’s campaign contributors, brothers Hardeep and Ravinder Chawla. Kelly is expected to testify during the trial about why he agreed to secretly record conversations with Wright and Ravinder Chawla for federal investigators in 2007.