Crime & Law

Feds Seek 12.5-Year Prison Sentence for Ex-Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan After Corruption Convictions

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to sentence former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to more than 12 years in prison following his convictions on charges of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud, saying his decades-long run as the most powerful politician in Illinois was “steeped in corruption.”

The government on Friday filed its sentencing memorandum, arguing that it is “just and warranted” to sentence Madigan to 12.5 years in prison and hit him with a $1.5 million fine.

“Time after time, Madigan exploited his immense power for his own personal benefit by trading his public office for private gain for himself and his associates, all the while carefully and deliberately concealing his conduct from detection,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker wrote in the memorandum.

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.

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.

After a four-month trial, a jury of eight women and four men found the former speaker guilty in February on charges related to two of those schemes following a four-month trial at the Dirksen Federal Building in downtown Chicago.

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.

As part of his defense during the four-month trial, Madigan took the witness stand himself and told jurors he never traded “official action for private gain.”

Prosecutors contend this was a lie and the speaker perjured himself on the witness stand.

“Madigan has expressed no remorse for his crimes, nor has he acknowledged the damage wrought by his conduct,” Streicker wrote. “Indeed, Madigan went so far as to commit perjury at trial in an effort to avoid accountability, and he persists in framing his actions as nothing more than helping people.”

Prosecutors have previously claimed 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.

The government also claimed Madigan 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.”

While the government is seeking a hefty fine, prosecutors have already dropped their planned forfeiture trial, in which they could have sought more than $3.1 in restitution from the former speaker.

“The crimes charged and proven at trial,” Streicker wrote, “demonstrate that Madigan engaged in corrupt activity at the highest level of state government for nearly a decade.”

Madigan is scheduled to be sentenced June 13.

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