Fitzgerald testifies in Ambrose trial
DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL'S TRIAL | Testifies Ambrose lied, then changed his story
When former Gov. George Ryan was sentenced to prison in 2006, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald sat in the back of the courtroom and scribbled on a yellow legal pad.
But Chicago's top prosecutor was not focusing on Ryan.
Instead, he was jotting down his memory of an interview he and local FBI boss Robert Grant conducted that morning with Deputy U.S. Marshal John Ambrose --whom they suspected of leaking sensitive information to the mob in 2002 and 2003.
"I understood this was the first compromise of the witness-protection program," Fitzgerald testified Monday during Ambrose's trial for allegedly compromising the security of prized mob informant Nicholas Calabrese.
Authorities discovered the leak while they reviewed a secret FBI recording of mobster brothers Jimmy and Michael Marcello.
On Sept. 6, 2006, Ambrose was lured to the FBI's office on a ruse that his help was needed in catching a fugitive. After he sat down, though, Fitzgerald and Grant let him know why he was really there. Ambrose was accused of letting the mob know that Calabrese was snitching to the FBI about murders.
It was rare for the U.S. attorney and the head of Chicago's FBI office to be the first to grill a criminal suspect. But Fitzgerald and Grant thought Ambrose would be more likely to cooperate with them. Ambrose held the No. 2 position in the marshals' fugitive task force.
An artery in Ambrose's neck started throbbing after he was confronted with the allegations, Fitzgerald testified. Ambrose initially said he did not know anything. Then he was presented with evidence of his fingerprints on Calabrese's secret witness file and changed his story, Fitzgerald said.
Ambrose admitted telling a mob-connected family friend in 2002 that he "worked with a witness who was in the Outfit at a very interesting time" and that Calabrese was brought to Chicago in 2003 to point out murder scenes to the FBI, Fitzgerald testified.
The family friend, William Guide, had worked with Ambrose's father on the Chicago Police Department. They were convicted of corruption in the 1980s. Ambrose's father died in prison.
Ambrose said "he was friends with people he should not have been friends with," Grant testified. Ambrose also said he had "f----- up," but didn't take any money for the information, Fitzgerald testified.