Crime & Law
Michael Madigan Found Guilty of Bribery Conspiracy, Other Charges as Jury Deadlocked on Racketeering
Michael Madigan, once the state of Illinois’ most powerful politician during his decades-long run as its House Speaker and chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, has now joined the long list of local and state powerbrokers convicted on federal corruption charges.
But Madigan dodged the top count — racketeering conspiracy — and several other charges tied to disgraced former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis after the jury deadlocked on a dozen charges.
Morris Pasqual, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said Wednesday’s convictions “rank high in the annals of criminal cases tried in this court.”
“The citizens of Illinois have a right to honest, clean government,” he said. “They have a right to have the decisions of their elected officials made based on what is good for the public, what is in the common good. They have a right to trust and expect that from their public officials. Michael Madigan breached and violated that trust over and over again.”
Madigan, flanked by his family and attorneys, left the courthouse without comment following the verdict. He faces up to 20 years in prison on some of the charges.
Read More: After Madigan’s Conviction, Lawmakers Ask: Has Illinois Done Enough to Root Out Corruption?
The jury deadlock extended to each of the six charges faced by Madigan’s co-defendant and longtime confidant Michael McClain.
McClain said his head was “spinning” after the verdicts were read off. Asked if he was surprised by the jury deadlock, he responded, “I was surprised I got indicted.”
Madigan was convicted on 10 counts in total, relating to his efforts to secure a valuable state board position for Solis and to the most wide-ranging of the alleged bribery schemes outlined by the government involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison.
McClain and three others were previously convicted of conspiring to bribe Madigan in the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial, though defense attorneys in that case are seeking to have those convictions tossed out.
“We are very glad to be walking out of this building the way Mike walked into it,” McClain’s defense attorney Patrick Cotter told reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Building. “He was an innocent man when he walked in, he’s walking out an innocent man.”
The jury deadlocked or acquitted the former speaker outright on seven other charges relating to three of the five schemes alleged by the government. Two of those related directly to Solis, who operated as an undercover mole for the government, recording years’ worth of calls and conversations with Madigan, McClain and others.
Specifically, Madigan was found not guilty of attempted extortion and three other charges connected to his alleged efforts to illegally steer business to his private tax firm — Madigan & Getzendanner — from developers of the Union West property.
The jury deadlocked on other charges connected to another similar scheme in which Madigan was again accused of attempting to steer business to his firm amid efforts to develop a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown in 2018.
They also deadlocked on a conspiracy count that alleged Madigan and McClain worked with AT&T Illinois leadership to solicit bribes from the phone company. That follows a similar deadlock from a separate federal jury in the trial of former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza, who is set to be retried later this year.
Pasqual said his office has not yet decided whether to retry the charges in this case on which the jury failed to reach a verdict.
“The Madigan verdict by a jury of everyday Illinoisans is an important message to anyone in government — or those thinking about public service — that if you choose corruption you will be found out, and you will be punished,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “This week has been a vital reminder that we must maintain our vigilance in cleaning up government and always put the people we serve first.”
Michael McClain, left, and his attorney Patrick Cotter speak in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal building on Feb. 12, 2025. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)
Solis, the former 25th Ward alderperson and chair of the city’s powerful Zoning Committee, served as the government’s star witness after he secretly recorded numerous conversations, both in-person and over the phone, with Madigan, McClain and others.
The Solis recordings and his lengthy testimony made up some of the most crucial evidence against Madigan in the Chinatown, Union West and state board seat schemes.
While the jury failed to reach a verdict on some of those Solis-related charges, Pasqual said he still believes the former alderperson “provided significant cooperation which contributed in a significant manner to the verdict in this case.”
Solis — who only cooperated after he was confronted by FBI investigators with evidence of his own bribery and corruption during his time in office — testified under a deferred prosecution agreement and is not expected to serve any jail time.
On the morning of the 11th day of jury deliberations, the jury of eight women and four men on Wednesday morning wrote a note to the court informing them of the verdict split.
“We have come to a unanimous decision on 17 counts,” the note read. “We have tried our very best to come to a unanimous decision on the remaining 12 counts and have not been able to do so. It is our belief that this impasse will not be overcome.”
The jury late Tuesday issued another note which may have indicated some contention in their deliberations, asking for an early release as they had “reached (their) limit” for the day while hoping to come back Wednesday and “start fresh.”
Madigan and McClain faced charges of racketeering, federal program bribery and wire fraud. Madigan is also accused of attempted extortion. The men were charged in a 23-count indictment, but Madigan and McClain were both charged together on six of those counts, bringing the total number of charges to 29.
Defense attorneys for both Madigan and McClain suggested accepting that partial verdict and declaring a mistrial on outstanding counts. Federal prosecutors said they were amenable to the decision, but wanted to inform the jury they are allowed to issue that partial verdict and that they would not need to continue deliberations on the outstanding changes if they remained deadlocked.
Michael Madigan listens as Judge John Blakey reads the verdict. (Illustration by L.D. Chukman)
Three Months of Testimony and Arguments
Prosecutors at trial argued Madigan was driven by “power and profit” as he, along with McClain, organized a “stream of bribes” in order to enhance his own power and line the pockets of himself and his allies.
“These folks are not playing checkers, they were playing chess,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said of the defendants during his closing arguments last month, “and the two of them were grandmasters of corruption.”
Illinois’ most powerful politician for decades, Madigan represented the 22nd District on Chicago’s Southwest Side for 50 years and led the Democratic Party of Illinois for 20 years before he was forced from power amid corruption rumors.
Madigan was first hit with a sweeping indictment back in 2022 in which he was accused of orchestrating five separate corruption schemes.
In the most wide-ranging of those schemes, Madigan and McClain were accused of arranging subcontractor jobs for several of the former speaker’s associates with Commonwealth Edison, which paid them $1.3 million even as they did little or no actual work for the utility giant.
ComEd execs allegedly hired the “ghost” workers in order to win over Madigan’s support on critical energy legislation in Springfield. Already, McClain and three other utility officials were convicted of conspiring to bribe Madigan in the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial.
Madigan and McClain were also accused of soliciting bribes from AT&T Illinois leadership by arranging for the phone company to indirectly pay ex-state Rep. Eddie Acevedo — another Madigan legislative ally — $22,500 over nine months though Acevedo did no actual work for the company.
Beyond those bribery charges, Madigan was accused of seeking to illegally steer business to his private property tax law firm in exchange for official action.
During the trial, Madigan took the witness stand in a stunning twist in which he denied any wrongdoing saying that he did nothing more than pass along to McClain — who worked as a contract lobbyist for ComEd — the names of his allies who had reached out for help finding work.
“When people ask me for help, if possible, I tried to help them,” Madigan told jurors.
Madigan testified he had no clue those around him weren’t doing the work they were paid to do for ComEd, and claimed he became “angry” when he later learned about this.
But in saying that on the witness stand, he opened the door for prosecutors to present a previously barred recording of a call between Madigan and McClain in which the speaker can be heard laughing about the idea of people being paid for little or no work.
“Some of these guys have made out like bandits, Mike,” Madigan said during the August 2018 phone conversation.
“Oh my God, for very little work, too,” McClain added. “Very little work.”
“Yeah,” Madigan replied on the call.
While the pair were discussing a ComEd labor consultant — not the “ghost” subcontractors — but prosecutors claimed that the fact Madigan referred to multiple “bandits” showed he was aware more than just one person weren’t doing the work they were paid to do for the company.
Prosecutors also argued the speaker’s laughter was “entirely inconsistent” with the concern and anger he testified that he’d felt.
Jurors at trial also heard from Solis, who testified about his secret recordings.
Prosecutors claimed Madigan would reach out to Solis and use the alderperson’s official position to gain private benefits for himself by setting up meetings with real estate developers so he could pitch them on his private law firm.
