Best of Philly

2022 Trial

Johnny Doc

There was the main trial — was Local 98 power broker John Dougherty guilty of corruption? And then there was the equally tantalizing trial within the trial: Would any of the city’s other politicos (Mayor Jim Kenney, multiple City Councilmembers) be caught on wiretaps saying something incriminating, or at least highly embarrassing? For the most part, the answer to the latter question was no, but that didn’t mean there was no sweating inside City Hall — and the wiretaps sure did their job revealing the provincial, brash, immature schoolyard playground that is Philly politics.