Video: The WTTW News Spotlight Politics team on former Ald. Danny Solis’ testimony and more of the day’s top stories. (Produced by Shelby Hawkins)

When Michael Madigan’s right-hand man Michael McClain sat down in late 2017 to speak with 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis about the potential development of a land parcel in Chinatown, he remarked how the Justice Department was sending 40 assistant U.S. attorneys to Chicago to help prosecute street gangs.

But McClain believed those prosecutors were more likely to go after white collar crime, and could specifically zero in on some politicians who’d been “too blatant” like Illinois legislators Martin Sandoval or Luis Arroyo.

“I think,” McClain said in another conversation about Sandoval in April 2018, “he’s an indictment waiting to happen, frankly.”

McClain was correct, as both Sandoval and Arroyo did eventually face federal indictments. But what he didn’t know was that another one of those politicians federal prosecutors had targeted was Solis himself, and he was recording that very conversation for the government.

Madigan, who served as Illinois House speaker for 36 years, is alleged to have orchestrated multiple corruption schemes, wielding his political power to reward loyal allies and enrich himself. He and McClain are each charged with racketeering, bribery and wire fraud.

They have each pleaded not guilty.

Solis’ testimony during his third day on the witness stand largely centered on 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.

But to do so, that land — which was owned by the state of Illinois and was leased to a nonprofit that ran a parking lot on the parcel — needed to be transferred to the city of Chicago so it could then be sold to developers. Solis on Tuesday testified about the efforts to do that and keep Madigan’s role in it under wraps from then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican.

Jurors on Tuesday saw videos of in-person meetings with McClain and project developers secretly recorded by Solis while he worked as an undercover mole for the government.

In one meeting, McClain outlined the need to bring on Republican lobbyist Nancy Kimme to help sway Rauner in support of the land transfer. McClain stressed that he was close with Kimme, but Rauner didn’t know that, and that if the governor had any whiff that Madigan was interested in the land transfer, he’d shut it down immediately.

“We try to keep it confidential because if Rauner found out that Nancy was close to Mike through me, he’d cut her off,” McClain said during the Nov. 14, 2017, meeting inside Solis’ City Hall office. “He’s obsessed with Mike.”

During another meeting months later on Dec. 18, 2017, Solis informed McClain that he was considering not running for reelection in 2019 and wanted the Chinatown development to go through as part of his “legacy” in office.

The parking lot along Wentworth Avenue in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood in October 2024. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)

In court Tuesday, Solis testified that he had in fact already made up his mind by that point and would not be seeking another term as 25th Ward alderperson.

“I was cooperating with the government,” he said, “and I wasn’t really planning on running again."

Solis had been approached at his home by FBI agents in June 2016 and was presented with evidence of his own bribery activity. He soon agreed to begin helping the government by secretly recording conversations.

The longtime 25th Ward alderperson and Zoning Committee chair, who is testifying under a deferred prosecution agreement, marks the most substantial witness in the government’s case against the former House speaker. Solis began his testimony last week, and he is expected to be on the witness stand for several days.

Prosecutors on Tuesday played another recording in court — this time an in-person meeting between Madigan and Solis in March 2018 — showing the pair as they sat down with a developer who was interested in signing on with Madigan’s law firm.

After that meeting, Solis and Madigan moved into the speaker’s Chicago office where Solis circled back to the Chinatown parcel.

“And then Mike, as you know, I’ve been around for a long time,” Solis said on the recording. “Uh, I can be discreet. Those developers will work with you the way that this guy has and get you the property taxes.”

“Yeah, sure,” Madigan replied. “Thank you.”

Asked about that comment in court, Solis testified that he felt Madigan was “thanking me for my assistance in bringing these developers to him.”

Madigan also explained during that meeting that the only way the state could transfer the Chinatown land would be through a land transfer bill. He told Solis he “shouldn’t do anything” and that he and McClain would make sure the bill was handled.

But the pair ran into “hurdle after hurdle” as McClain described it, in trying to get that bill moved forward during the spring 2018 session. They wanted to ensure it was voted on at that point because with a gubernatorial election that fall between Rauner and Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker, they were concerned it could be delayed even more extensively no matter who won.

When they realized the bill would not be moving forward in the spring 2018 session, Madigan told McClain in a wiretapped phone call to “put the file in the drawer for a while.”

Earlier that year in January 2018, Madigan also called Solis out of the blue to ask him about a proposed development in Peoria Park located in Solis’ ward.

On that call, played in court Tuesday, Madigan asked Solis if that project was moving forward before asking if “you know why I’m interested?”

Solis replied that he did, and told jurors in court that Madigan had sought to meet those project developers and “possibly getting the insurance business from them.”

Former Ald. Danny Solis, who served as a government informant, testifies during the trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan on Nov. 25, 2024. (Illustration by Cheryl Cook)

Solis on Tuesday also testified about another scheme Madigan is charged with in which he allegedly sought to trade a state board position for additional tax work for his law firm.

In June 2018, Solis recorded a conversation with Madigan at the speaker’s law office where Solis brought up the idea that Madigan could help get him appointed to a state board position after he left office sometime in the coming years.

Solis testified this was part of his “assignments” given to him by investigators as part of his federal cooperation. In reality, Solis said he had no plans to run for reelection and had no interest in any board seat.

During the meeting, Solis told Madigan 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 answered on the recording.

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.”

Burke was ultimately convicted of bribery in connection to the Old Post Office redevelopment project due in part to additional recordings Solis made of his fellow alderperson.

Solis told Madigan that the developer had purchased other properties as well, and Madigan allegedly replied, “Yeah. Oh yeah. I know.”

“So, if you want, I can bring him to you, too,” Solis said.

Later in the same conversation, after Solis again mentioned the possible board seat, Madigan stated “we’ll have to identify something and hold it” and that he would “put together a, uh, piece of paper that shows you all the” board members and their term dates.

“Excellent, thank you so much,” Solis replied.

This is a developing story.