Crime & Law
Michael Madigan to Get His Day in Court, More Than 2 Years After Bombshell Racketeering, Bribery Indictment
Former House Speaker Michael Madigan exits the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago on Jan. 3. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)
“Public Official A.” “Our friend.” “The boss.”
References to Michael Madigan, arguably the most powerful politician in Illinois history, have been strewn throughout numerous court documents and trial proceedings at the Dirksen Federal Building in recent years. Some have even heard from the man himself, his voice played out in secretly recorded conversations federal prosecutors used as the cornerstones of criminal cases targeting members of his inner circle.
Now the former Illinois House speaker will get his own day in court.
Madigan, along with his longtime confidant and current co-defendant Michael McClain, is finally set to go to trial this week, more than two and a half years after the men were first charged in a bombshell federal indictment that accused them of racketeering, bribery and wire fraud.
Both men have denied any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty.
Madigan, who represented the 22nd District on Chicago’s Southwest Side for 50 years and who served as House speaker for 36 years, is alleged to have orchestrated multiple corruption schemes, wielding his political power to reward loyal allies and enrich himself.
Prosecutors have alleged these various schemes “occurred in parallel” and frequently overlapped with one another, as Madigan and McClain were sometimes recorded on government wiretaps discussing multiple conspiracies over the course of single conversations.
The speaker’s decades-long grip on power began to erode in December 2020 when Commonwealth Edison officials admitted the utility giant arranged jobs, contracts and payoffs for Madigan’s associates to win Madigan’s crucial support.
McClain and three other ComEd officials were subsequently charged and convicted in that scheme. The speaker’s longtime chief of staff, Tim Mapes, is also currently serving a 30-month prison sentence after he was convicted of lying to a grand jury in an effort to protect his former boss during the ComEd investigation.
ComEd Scheme
The government’s evidence in the alleged ComEd scheme was already presented in large part during the 2023 trial of the so-called “ComEd Four” — McClain and three other utility officials — who were convicted of conspiring to bribe Madigan in order to curry his favor on Springfield legislation that would benefit the company.
In that alleged scheme, Madigan and McClain are accused of arranging subcontractor jobs for several of the former speaker’s associates — including 13th Ward precinct captains Ray Nice and Ed Moody, and former Chicago Alds. Frank Olivo and Michael Zalewski — with the utility giant, which paid out more than $1 million to those individuals even as they did little or no work.
Moody previously testified at the “ComEd Four” trial that although he did receive a ComEd paycheck, he did minimal work for the company and believed he was actually being paid to continue working as a political operative on Madigan-connected campaigns.
“‘(McClain) said, ‘This was a hell of a plum and that I owed the speaker big,’” Moody testified during that trial.
The feds claim Madigan and McClain sought to conceal the payments to those subcontractors by falsifying ComEd records and used intermediaries to make the payments.
“Some of these guys have made out like bandits, Mike,” Madigan allegedly said during a wiretapped phone conversation with McClain in August 2018.
McClain then allegedly replied: “Oh my God … for very little work, too.”
Madigan’s defense team, however, has argued that their client did nothing more than make job recommendations to ComEd, and that there are no connections to be made between those hires and any official actions Madigan took as speaker.
Prosecutors also allege Madigan and McClain convinced ComEd to retain the law firm of Reyes Kurson because one of its partners, Victor Reyes, was “particularly valuable to Madigan’s political operation,” and ensured another Madigan ally, Juan Ochoa, would be appointed to ComEd’s board of directors, even as utility officials expressed concerns about the move.
Among the government’s witnesses expected to testify are Moody and ComEd’s former vice president of government affairs Fidel Marquez, who previously pleaded guilty to a bribery charge for his role in the alleged scheme and began cooperating with prosecutors by secretly recording conversations and phone calls in 2019.
ComEd itself entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the government and agreed to pay a $200 million fine to resolve an investigation into its role in the bribery scheme.
In this July 26, 2017, file photo, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan speaks at a news conference at the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois. (Justin Fowler / The State Journal-Register via AP, File)
AT&T Allegations
Prosecutors have alleged that between 2017 and 2018, Madigan and McClain were also working with the president of AT&T Illinois, Paul La Schiazza, to solicit bribes from the phone company.
They allegedly did so by arranging for AT&T to indirectly pay ex-state Rep. Eddie Acevedo, another Madigan ally, $22,500 over nine months though Acevedo did no actual work for the company.
In exchange, Madigan allegedly supported legislation that allowed AT&T to terminate its costly obligation to provide landline phone services to all Illinois residents who requested them.
“In essence,” prosecutors wrote in a previous court filing, “AT&T knew Madigan had the power to stall AT&T’s legislation and did not want to find out what might happen if the company did not hire (Acevedo).”
In a March 2017 email, prosecutors said La Schiazza confirmed AT&T had gotten a “GO Order” from McClain — who was allegedly acting on Madigan’s behalf — to hire Acevedo and directed his employees to “move quickly to get this done.”
Like ComEd, AT&T Illinois also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and paid a $23 million fine to resolve the investigation into its misconduct.
La Schiazza was charged and tried separately in connection with this alleged scheme, but a judge declared a mistrial last month after the jury hearing his case deadlocked during deliberations.
Ald. Danny Solis (WTTW News)
Solis and a Board Seat
Another scheme outlined by prosecutors involved Madigan allegedly offering to help disgraced former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis secure a position on a state board in exchange for Solis referring legal business to Madigan’s law firm.
Solis, who has since entered into his own deferred prosecution agreement after admitting he took bribes while serving as chair of Chicago’s Zoning Committee, secretly recorded hundreds of hours of phone conversations as part of investigations into Madigan and Solis’ fellow former Ald. Ed Burke.
After beginning his cooperation with the feds, Solis was directed by the FBI to speak with Madigan about certain topics, including the possibility of Madigan assisting Solis with obtaining a state board position when he finished serving as an alderperson.
Solis is expected to testify that Madigan continued asking him to make introductions to real estate developers so that Madigan could secure their tax business for his law firm, prosecutors said.
In a June 2018 conversation recorded by Solis, he spoke with Madigan about the potential for a state board seat before stating that he would “continue to get you legal business. I, I’ve got all kinds of stuff [referring to developments] happening in the South Loop and in the West Loop.”
“... see, I never knew that that section was in your ward,” Madigan allegedly replied. Prosecutors said Madigan then mentioned that he’d been “trying to make a connection with” the director of the company that was developing the Old Post Office project in Solis’ ward in order to pitch him to hire Madigan’s private law firm.
“I can bring you him,” Solis responded, “but you know, who’s been, um, actually, is [Chicago Ald. Ed] Burke has been, I, I’ve connected him to him, but he didn’t give him the work for the post office.”
After Solis again brought up the possibility of a board seat during that conversation, Madigan allegedly replied that he would “put together a, uh, piece of paper that shows you all the” board members and their term dates.
Prosecutors also expect Solis to testify about Madigan’s alleged efforts to illegally steer business to his private property tax law firm amid efforts to develop a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown — which was in Solis’ aldermanic ward — into a commercial development.
Solis sought Madigan’s help in getting that land transferred from state ownership so a group of developers could then purchase it, according to prosecutors.
“Madigan readily agreed to assist with the understanding that he would obtain legal work for Madigan & Getzendanner from (the developers) if the transfer occurred,” prosecutors wrote in a March 2024 court filing.
McClain allegedly worked to get that parcel transferred as part of a land transfer bill in 2018, but that action was never completed, according to prosecutors, due to opposition by “numerous parties.”
Trial Delays
Madigan and McClain were initially set to go to trial back in April, but in January, Judge John Blakey pushed the start date to October as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate bribery case.
The high court issued that ruling in June, finding that it is not illegal for elected officials to accept “gratuities” as a token of appreciation after an official act. That decision narrowed the scope of the federal bribery statute and led to Madigan’s attorneys seeking to have several bribery-related charges tossed out.
Blakey ultimately denied that request last week, meaning Madigan and McClain could still be convicted of bribery. But the Supreme Court ruling has also thrown a wrench into another case — the “ComEd Four.”
While those four were found guilty in the spring of 2023, they have still not been sentenced. And with the federal bribery statute now altered, their defense attorneys are seeking to have their convictions tossed out and the case retried.
Heather Cherone contributed to this report.
