It just gets weirder.

On Tuesday, six correctional officers were suspended with pay because they are subjects of the sheriff’s internal investigation of Saturday’s jail break, Cunningham said.

Sources said one of those guards, a 36-year-old ex-Marine, has admitted he helped the inmates escape to give a political boost to a former jail supervisor, Richard Remus, who is running for Sheahan’s post in the March 21 Democratic primary.

Prosecutors on Tuesday night charged that correctional officer, Darin Gater, with a variety of offenses, and he is due in court today. […]

Still, one official close to the investigation said, “I’m absolutely not convinced with the Remus angle. That’s one of the problems I’m having. At best, I think it was a hope that it would assist Remus. But I cannot and do not believe anybody would be that stupid that they wouldn’t realize their heads would roll if something bad happened on their watch.”

And weirder.

News also broke Tuesday the jailbreak itself was no secret.

Authorities had been tipped to the planned breakout hours before the escape, officials said. In fact, word of the planned escape had made it all the way to the maximum security section of the jail where the inmates were housed, officials said.

What happened next still remains unclear, but six guards from that wing, including Gater, were suspended with pay Tuesday pending the outcome of an internal sheriff’s investigation, according to statements from sheriff’s officials.

And here’s some background on Richard Remus.

Remus split with Sheahan after Remus and his brother lost their jobs with the sheriff’s office.

And the blood feud thickened in recent days when a jail guard who once worked for Remus reportedly admitted that he helped six inmates escape from Cook County Jail to embarrass Sheahan and Dart — and to help Remus. Remus denies any involvement.

Remus, 48, is half Irish and half German, and grew up in the 19th Ward since the sixth grade. He worked on Mayor Daley’s first mayoral campaign and helped Michael Sheahan in his first campaign for sheriff. […]

Richard Remus’ name surfaced in 2003 when inmates sued him for allegedly leading a mass-beating in 1999. They said Remus stood on a table shouting, “SORT runs the jail.” The county settled the lawsuit. Remus was forced out of his job after an internal affairs investigation. A grand jury that investigated the incident said of Remus: