Trial expected to last months
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The corruption trial for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has begun.
Madigan had been indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges as a part of what federal prosecutors call "the Madigan enterprise," where they say he allegedly committed crimes for his personal gain and that of his political allies.
The blockbuster trial is expected to take several months.
Check back with ABC7 Chicago for live updates.
A jury has been selected for former House Speaker Michael Madigan's corruption trial.
On Monday morning, the jury was made up of eight women and four men, but two more alternates were picked throughout the day.
Jury selection for Madigan's trial was always going to be a slow and deliberate process. Due to the high-profile nature of the case, Judge Blakey this summer agreed to keep prospective jurors' names anonymous and question them individually after completing a lengthy questionnaire.
But selecting the 12-member jury and six alternate jurors from the nearly 200-person jury pool took more than twice as long as originally scheduled. By the time the final alternates are chosen on Monday, the seven-day process will have lasted longer than the entire related AT&T trial last month.
The dozens of prospective jurors who made it into the courtroom for questioning were largely white and were also disproportionately older, likely due to the number of those working-age pool members who were immediately eliminated by their inability to commit to an estimated 11 weeks of trial.
After spending on average more than half an hour with each prospective juror during questioning aimed at flagging any unconscious biases, the parties finally found their 12th member on Thursday morning. The jury includes a racially diverse group of eight women and four men ranging from their early 20s to retirees.
Jury members include a teacher, an Amazon warehouse worker and a Goodwill donation center employee. The jury also has a number of health care workers, including an overnight nurse and two who work in patient scheduling at separate Chicago hospitals.
The final juror works at yet another Chicago hospital and told a Madigan attorney that he'd heard the speaker's name but wasn't sure what position he'd held.
"I know he's been a longtime leader, well-known name in Illinois and the city but I - honestly, I'm a little embarrassed ... I don't follow politics that much," he said.
But most of the jury is in the same boat. Some were vaguely aware of Madigan's case and last year's ComEd trial from headlines and mentions on TV news, though others had never heard the speaker's name before.
One juror confessed that when she told her best friend about her jury summons, the friend predicted that she was being called for the Madigan case - and told her to "vote guilty" for the longtime Democratic powerbroker.
"She's a Trumper," the juror said of her friend, referring to her support for former President Donald Trump. "She really hates all Democrats except me, maybe."
The same juror also elicited a rare moment of laughter from Madigan when she told his attorney Tom Breen that he looked like the actor Eric Roberts.
Even the judge joined in on the reaction shared by the rest of the courtroom.
"Eric Roberts?" Blakey repeated incredulously. "Wow."
Jury selection will begin this week in the corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, whose half-century career and status as Illinois' most powerful politician ended nearly four years ago as the feds circled ever-closer to his inner circle.
Madigan was once considered the most powerful politician in Illinois, serving as House speaker for a total of 36 years. The 82-year-old ex-speaker faces bribery and racketeering charges - along with his longtime friend and powerful Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain - in a case that frames Madigan's power in government, politics and as a partner in his law firm as a criminal enterprise.
The trial, which is scheduled to last through mid-December, is the culmination of more than a decade of digging by the FBI and prosecutors, and it's the final in a series of related cases that have played out in Chicago's federal courthouse over the last few years.
Opening statements in the case are likely to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 15, though Blakey this week said jury selection should take as long as it needs. The trial is scheduled through Dec. 13.
An FBI agent is expected to testify Thursday in the federal corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.
The agent helped wiretap hundreds of phone conversations between Madigan and his co-defendant Mike McClain.
Former state Representative Lou Lang is also expected to take the stand.
While former Majority Leader Lou Lang was expected to take the stand about his resignation, testimony, much like jury selection, has been slow-going.
Lang has testified in both the ComEd case and the trial of Madigan's former chief of staff last summer. Both testimonies delved into how Madigan sent Mike McClain to urge Lang to retire from the General Assembly after the speaker's office was warned of a woman who had threatened to go public with sexual harassment allegations if Lang did not step down.
Madigan's voice will likely be heard for the first time during his testimony, in an undercover phone call in which he is heard telling McClain to ask Lang to resign, sooner rather than later.
Lang resigned two months after those phone calls were made, and while this incident has nothing to do with the bribery and racketeering case against the former speaker, his testimony, along with others Wednesday is meant to lay a foundation for the jury.: painting a picture of an all-powerful legislator who always got his way.
Lang is expected to testify Thursday.
ComEd Vice President of Strategy and Energy Policy Scott Vogt is testifying Wednesday in the Madigan trial.
He spoke to ComEd's "dire" financial condition due to the rate freeze from 1998 to 2006.
Vogt said he works on budget forecasting, energy efficiency programs and general consulting.
He explained that ComEd provides services to customers, but the rates are regulated by state law.
Vogt said that during the rate freeze, there were more outages because their resources became limited.
He said ComEd paid attention to legislation in an effort to help the company.
Former Illinois Rep. Scott Drury echoed the comments made by his fellow former representative, Carol Sente, in speaking to former House Speaker Mike Madigan's power in his testimony Tuesday and Wednesday.
Drury is currently a lawyer, but ran three election cycles for state representative of some of the north suburbs as a Democrat.
He spoke to Madigan asking for his support and to the power he had over both legislation and the legislators.
Drury said Madigan told him at one point he couldn't figure out what the representative wanted.
When Drury said he wanted "good government," Madigan laughed.
Drury also testified that after he voted "present" rather than voting for Madigan and began pulling away from his support, he didn't pass any bills.
One of Madigan's defense attorney said at least one of his bills did pass.
An ethics bill became stuck at one point, however, Drury said.
Drury also said he spoke with an AT&T lobbyist for one of his bills.
