Crime & Law

Feds Claim Ex-Speaker Michael Madigan Lied Repeatedly on Witness Stand, Ask Judge to Reject Request to Toss Convictions

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to reject Michael Madigan’s request for his convictions to be tossed out, claiming the former House speaker repeatedly lied on the witness stand when he testified in his own defense at his landmark corruption trial earlier this year.

The government Monday filed its response to Madigan’s request, arguing that it “ignores the overwhelming evidence” presented at the monthslong trial.

“Madigan has failed to meet the nearly insurmountable hurdle he faces in attempting to overturn the jury’s verdict through a judgment of acquittal,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker wrote in the filing.

Madigan, who was tried alongside his longtime confidant Michael McClain, was accused of orchestrating five separate corruption schemes in which he sought to use his immense political power to enrich himself and his allies.

He was convicted in February on charges related to two of those schemes following a four-month trial in downtown Chicago.

In one of those schemes, utility giant Commonwealth Edison hired Madigan allies to no-work subcontractor jobs in an attempt to win the speaker’s support on critical energy legislation. In the other, Madigan worked to secure a valuable state board position for then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis in exchange for Solis steering business to Madigan’s private tax law firm.

The speaker was also acquitted on seven other counts, while the 12-person jury deadlocked on six more charges, including the top count of racketeering conspiracy. The jury also failed to reach a verdict on any of the six charges McClain faced.

Prosecutors claim the evidence provided at trial “amply supports” the guilty verdicts, but added that Madigan’s alleged lies over the course of four days on the witness stand in January “gave the jury additional reason to find that he acted with corrupt intent.”

In its response, the feds outlined more than a half dozen instances in which Madigan allegedly lied to the jury, including that he never traded “official action for private gain.”

Prosecutors also claim Madigan lied about his involvement with the contract for one of those subcontractor hires — former 13th Ward precinct captain Ed Moody — and lied to minimize his relationship with McClain, who he’d been close with for decades.

“Madigan’s testimony was in stark contrast to the many emails and calls admitted into evidence that showed Madigan relying on McClain to solve sensitive problems for him … and make numerous job requests on his behalf,” Streicker wrote in the government filing.

The government claimed Madigan also lied when he testified McClain never said he suspected any of the subcontractors were actually doing no work. Madigan told jurors how angry he’d become when learning his allies who’d been given contracting positions with ComEd had essentially been doing no work for the company.

But in making that statement, he opened the door for prosecutors to play a previously barred wiretapped conversation between himself and McClain from 2018 in which Madigan can be heard laughing about how others had “made out like bandits.”

“Oh my God, for very little work, too,” McClain said on that call. “Very little work.”

Madigan’s request to have the verdicts tossed out is a routine procedure following conviction, one that is typically unsuccessful. In filing that request last month, the speaker’s legal team argued that he was not corrupt and never exchanged his public office for private gain.

“Madigan’s primary purpose was to work hard for his community and the Democratic
Party,” defense attorneys Dan Collins and Tom Breen wrote in their motion. “Understanding the dignity of work, when people off the street, colleagues, friends, or other public officials, asked for help finding a job, Madigan tried to help.”

Prosecutors last week announced they would no longer be seeking more than $3 million from Madigan as part of a forfeiture trial following his convictions. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 13.

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