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The corruption trial for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is nearing the end.
The former speaker, who left office under growing pressure related to the investigation in early 2021, and his co-defendant Mike McClain each face 23 counts of racketeering, bribery, extortion and wire fraud. Prosecutors allege Madigan used his political power and various offices – including as a partner in his law firm – as a “criminal enterprise” to protect and enhance his power while enriching himself and his allies.
Here’s are highlights from the trial’s 11th week:
Closing arguments
After watching prosecutors spend more than 10 hours over three days dissecting every element of the racketeering and bribery case against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the defense on Friday acknowledged the government’s presentation seemed “very polished.”
“But it’s incomplete,” Madigan attorney Dan Collins said as he began his own closing arguments summarizing the last three months of trial. “It’s misleading. And on the most important points, it’s false.”
Collins told the jury that despite the “confident” way prosecutors portrayed Madigan as having abused his various positions of power for private gain, the government was relying on their own theories based on a false persona applied to Madigan by his detractors over decades.
“In this case, ladies and gentlemen, the government sees the myth,” Collins said after hearkening back to a nickname the jury heard earlier in trial when a witness acknowledged colleagues called Madigan “sphinx” after the mythical creature. “They do not see the man.”
And just as the feds depended on their own incomplete picture of the longtime Democratic powerbroker, Collins claimed, they also “depend on your cynicism,” he told the jury, referring to “the cynicism we have around our public officials.”
Madigan had been the nation’s longest-serving legislative leader before the feds’ swirling investigation helped force him into retirement in 2021. He had served in the General Assembly for five decades, and reigned as House speaker for 36 years. Along the way, Madigan amassed power through running his local political organization in his native 13th Ward on Chicago’s Southwest Side and chairing the state’s Democratic Party for nearly half of his political career.
Outside of public office, Madigan was also the co-founder of a law firm that specializes in property tax appeals for large commercial real estate, including some of Chicago’s most recognizable high rises. Under questioning from a government lawyer last week on the witness stand, the former speaker’s longtime law partner agreed with the contention that Madigan was the “rainmaker” for the firm, focused on bringing in new clients.
Prosecutors allege Madigan abused those three power bases, twisting them into a “criminal enterprise” that served to preserve and enhance his power as well as enrich both him and his allies.
The feds allege Madigan solicited and accepted bribes in the form of jobs and contracts for his political allies at electric utility Commonwealth Edison in exchange for helping several major ComEd-backed laws along in Springfield from 2011 to 2019. Prosecutors also allege a similar, albeit smaller scheme involving telecom giant AT&T Illinois in 2017 and 2018.
The feds also allege Madigan both solicited bribes from and offered bribes to powerful Chicago Ald. Danny Solis’ in an effort to recruit more real estate developers as clients to his law firm. That scheme ran from 2017 until Solis was outed as an FBI cooperator by the Chicago Sun-Times in 2019, the feds allege.
But Madigan didn’t run the alleged racketeering conspiracy by himself, according to the feds. Prosecutors indicted Madigan’s longtime friend, retired Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain, saying he acted as Madigan’s agent and also helped facilitate certain acts of bribery charged in the case.
“For Madigan and McClain, the corrupt way was the way it was – the way it continued to be,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said as she wrapped up her marathon closing arguments Friday morning.
“But that is not the way the law says it can be,” she continued, urging the jury to return guilty verdicts on each of the counts the pair are charged with.
Before trial broke for the weekend, Collins left the jury with a parting thought on Solis, whom MacArthur had characterized as a “walking microphone” during her presentation – a reference to the hundreds of hours of secretly recorded conversations he gave feds access to during his 2 ½ years as an FBI mole. Solis began cooperating with the government in June 2016 after he was caught accepting bribes and abusing his campaign funds.
Capitol News Illinois
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