Jury selection begins this week in corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan
CHICAGO -- 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.
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"Mike Madigan was seen as being one of the most careful, most cautious, most deliberative politicians ever in the history of Illinois. He never took chances. He was very much behind the scenes. He never played his cards in public, and yet he has been caught up in this indictment," said ABC7 Political Analyst Laura Washington.
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.
At the heart of the prosecution's case is former Alderman Danny Solis, who wore a wire as a cooperating witness for the feds after being charged in his own corruption case. He is seen as a government mole who comes with a lot of baggage.
"This is a man who sold his office. He has admitted to that, but he hasn't done a single day in jail, so what the defense is going to say is, the prosecution bought his testimony," Safer said.
The feds have already won convictions and guilty pleas from many in Madigan's orbit, including McClain, his long time confidant who was caught on tape as part of the investigation.
"Madigan's going to say, 'That was him. That wasn't me. He was speaking. He was using my name, but I had nothing to do with that. I didn't tell him to use my name, I didn't take the bribe,'" said former federal prosecutor-turned defense attorney Ron Safer.
McClain and three former executives for electric utility Commonwealth Edison were found guilty last year in a case accusing them of bribing Madigan with jobs and do-nothing contracts for the speaker's political allies in order to grease the wheels for legislation favorable to ComEd.
Some of those political allies who got contracts at ComEd and telecommunications giant AT&T Illinois have faced tax evasion charges and are either serving or have already completed prison sentences.
Also last year, the former speaker's longtime and extremely loyal chief of staff Tim Mapes was convicted on two counts of perjury and attempted obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury investigating Madigan and his inner circle.
Most recently, however, a jury last month deadlocked in the trial of former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza, who was accused of bribing Madigan via a do-nothing job for the speaker's political ally in 2017. Arguments for his acquittal are scheduled for next month.
Though that trial's outcome was a hopeful development for Madigan, it's unclear if it will have any bearing on the former speaker's own case, which is much larger and more complex.
Madigan's trial, which was originally scheduled for this past spring, was delayed while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a case that dealt with federal bribery statute. That decision, issued in June, narrowed the definition of "bribery" in federal criminal law to exclude "gratuities" - a gift given to a politician after an "official act" - and said that the "timing of the agreement is the key, not the timing of the payment."
In response to the ruling, Madigan's lawyers asked U.S. District Judge John Blakey to dismiss some of the bribery charges in the case, claiming prosecutors failed to allege a "quid pro quo" occurred between the former speaker and entities like ComEd and AT&T.
"They will argue that that's just a course of business, and perhaps that it's a gratuity. It was a thank you, right, as opposed to a quid pro quo," said former federal prosecutor Kalia Coleman.
But legal experts say the feds would adjust their presentation to account for that as part of a case that they have been meticulously preparing.
"They're not going to have that kind of a charge with a pop gun. They've got a cannon. They've got multiple cannons, whether it can be trained directly at the speaker. That's what we're going to find out," Safer said.
And Blakey this week sided with prosecutors, who have pursued a so-called "stream of benefits" legal theory, wherein a pattern of corrupt exchanges over a long period of time is proof enough of a quid pro quo, even if there's no smoking gun evidence of a handshake deal.
"Contrary to Defendants' characterization, the indictment does not merely allege that ComEd hired certain individuals recommended by Madigan and that, during the same time period, Madigan happened to vote in favor of certain legislation affecting ComEd," Blakey wrote in his order Wednesday. "Rather, it explicitly alleges that Madigan performed official acts related to legislation affecting ComEd in exchange for ComEd's hiring of certain individuals."
Blakey this summer made a series of pretrial decisions for the Madigan case, which will be one of the most high-profile political corruption cases this century, along with last year's trial of Chicago Ald. Ed Burke and former Govs. Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan.
Because of the high-profile nature of the case, Blakey has laid out a schedule for jury selection that will take at least four days, beginning with an extensive questionnaire for the 180 prospective jurors. And when questioning of the jury pool begins on Wednesday, no names will be used and news media will be barred from the courtroom, only able to watch via an overflow room elsewhere in the courthouse.
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.
Last week, a judge denied a request from Madigan's lawyers to drop some of the charges against him.
They based their request on a recent Supreme Court ruling in the a bribery case against the former mayor of Portage.
Madigan's attorneys declined to comment to ABC7.
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ABC7 Chicago's Craig Wall contributed to this report.
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