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.
State Rep. Bob Rita began his testimony Thursday.
He testified for about 10 minutes before court was dismissed about 5 p.m.
Rita is a current state representative. He has been since 2003.
He represents the South Side of Chicago and some south suburbs.
He is chairman of the Executive Committee, and Madigan had appointed him as vice chair.
He's also chairperson for the Tollway Committee and Occupational Licensing Committee.
Rita's testimony will resume Monday.
Former House Speaker Mike Madigan's voice was heard for the first time in his trial during former Majority Leader Lou Lang's testimony Thursday, in an undercover phone call in which he is heard telling Mike McClain to ask Lang to resign, sooner rather than later.
It was the first of some 200 undercover recordings that were captured.
In court Thursday, jurors heard McClain say on tape, "So, when do you want me to call Lang and just lower the boom on him?"
Madigan is heard saying, "Soon. Soon."
Then, there was a recording of McClain talking to Lang, saying "This is not just me talking. This is someone who cares deeply for you, who wants you to move on."
Former Majority Leader Lou Lang has finished his testimony after several hours Thursday.
He spoke to bills moving out of the Rules Committee, and said he respected Madigan as a leader.
Lang said Madigan did not respect him all the time.
He also said Madigan never instructed him on how to vote on a bill, but added that the speaker had tremendous power.
Lang was involved in the ComEd bills.
He said former state Rep. Scott Drury, who previously testified was not well-liked, and being well-liked helped move a bill.
Lang said Madigan did request for him to resign.
He said he "left because it was in my best interest and nobody else."
The jury is taking a lunch break, before the next witness.
The court has selected the 12th juror on Thursday.
Now, they will move on to select alternate jurors. By noon the judge announced they selected their first alternate.
Judge Robert Blakey said if they don't finish today, they will wrap it up and begin opening statements on Monday.
There will be no court on Friday.
There's more jury selection on tap Thursday at the federal trial of Mike Madigan.
No new jurors were selected Tuesday or Wednesday.
Seven more are needed.
In addition to the 11 jurors who have slowly already been chosen, one final jury member must survive challenges, plus six alternates.
The jury that will determine the fate of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is nearly complete after three slow days of jury selection last week.
But, in addition to the 11 jurors who have already been chosen, one final jury member must survive challenges, plus six alternates - a larger number than other recent federal corruption trials, owing to the length of Madigan's.
Jury selection continues Tuesday, after the trial took a break for the holiday weekend.
U.S. District Judge Robert Blakey has repeatedly told the attorneys they should take whatever time they need. But he has also warned the pace would delay the trial one week beyond its original 10-week schedule. On Friday, Blakey and the attorneys agreed that opening statements would be pushed to Monday, Oct. 21.
So far, the jury pool has been overwhelmingly white, though the jurors selected are a more diverse group of eight women and three men. The jury so far includes a teacher, an Amazon warehouse worker, an overnight nurse and a Goodwill donation center employee.
The Goodwill employee, who was chosen Friday, told attorneys she's considering moving out of Illinois because she didn't want to continue raising her son in Chicago due to violence and the cost of living.
The jury will also include a woman who said 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 former Democratic House speaker.
"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."
Prosecutors and attorneys for Madigan and McClain have already agreed to dismiss dozens of prospective jurors based on their answers to a lengthy questionnaire they filled out earlier this week. Many of those dismissals were made because the jurors couldn't commit to the full trial, though a number of them were nixed because their questionnaire answers expressed animus toward politicians in general or Madigan in particular.
While some prospective jurors who made it to the questioning in the courtroom had heard of Madigan or remembered seeing something about the charges in the news, many had never heard his name.
One juror told attorneys that he'd grown up in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood and was even familiar with a parking lot that will factor into the trial when prosecutors present evidence about a proposed hotel project in that neighborhood. Prosecutors allege Madigan improperly accepted former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis' offer to direct property tax work for the project to Madigan's law firm in exchange for an appointment on a state board for Solis, though neither the appointment nor the hotel project ever panned out.
On his questionnaire, the potential juror also wrote the words "scandal" and "fraud" in association with Madigan and said that he'd remembered a history teacher in high school speaking negatively about the former speaker, though he claimed to be "neutral" about Madigan now.
After 45 minutes of questioning, Blakey ultimately booted the potential juror, siding with defense attorneys' concerns about his preconceived notions.
Though some prospective jurors who were questioned in the courtroom said they were casual consumers of news, many expressed apathy or even disinterest about current events and politics. Others were unclear on the concept of lobbying and believed it to be illegal.
- ABC7 Chicago contributed
Opening statements are now expected to begin next Thursday at the earliest in former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's corruption trial.
Attorneys and the federal judge presiding over the case previously hoped opening statements could begin Tuesday, but jury selection has been slow-going.
