Crime & Law

Appeals Court Upholds Michael Madigan Verdict; House Speaker Will Remain in Prison on Corruption Convictions

A federal appeals court has upheld Michael Madigan’s landmark corruption convictions, meaning the former Illinois House speaker will remain in prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday said it has upheld Madigan’s convictions on charges of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud that were reached after a four-plus month trial early last year.

The court in its 29-page ruling noted that prosecutors called more than 50 witnesses and presented more than 1,000 exhibits at trial, and that from this “mountain of evidence,” jurors could “reasonably infer … that Madigan conspired to receive bribes.”

“This was not politics as usual or ordinary lobbying,” the court wrote in its ruling. “The trial evidence exposed a sustained and concealed arrangement to exchange enormous political influence within the Illinois General Assembly for over $3 million of benefits for political allies.”

The longtime speaker was sentenced last summer to 7.5 years in federal prison.

The court’s ruling comes days after it ordered new trials for two former Commonwealth Edison officials who were convicted of conspiring to bribe Madigan to earn his backing on critical energy legislation.

Madigan, 84, represented the 22nd District on Chicago’s Southwest Side for 50 years, spent decades chairing the Illinois Democratic Party and served as Illinois’ House speaker for 36 years before he retired in 2021 amid expanding corruption allegations that swirled around him and his 13th Ward political operation.

A 12-person jury found the former speaker guilty on 10 of 23 total charges, with his convictions centering on two of those schemes: his efforts to secure a valuable state board position for disgraced former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis, and his bribery efforts involving ComEd.

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 ComEd, which paid them $1.3 million even as they did essentially no real work for the company.

At his sentencing last June, U.S. District Judge John Blakey found that Madigan acted as the “central command post” of the bribery schemes, and repeatedly perjured himself while testifying at trial in an attempt to conceal his guilt and mislead the jury, calling his testimony a “nauseating display … of perjury and evasion.”

Madigan’s attorneys made their case to overturn those convictions before a three-judge panel from the Seventh Circuit earlier this month.

They argued the government’s prosecution of their client “pushed federal bribery law over the boundaries set by the Supreme Court.” They took issue with “erroneous” instructions given to jurors over the definition of the term “corruptly” and alleged federal prosecutors engaged in a “blind pursuit of Madigan.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz argued that the jury received “abundant evidence” to prove Madigan engaged in a quid pro quo bribery scheme and that he “corrupted state government at the highest levels” when he repeatedly agreed to trade his official actions for personal gain.

The judges in their ruling Monday said Madigan “spent nearly a decade leveraging his power as one of the highest-ranking public officials in Illinois in exchange for over $3 million of financial benefits for his close political allies.”

“The linkage was clear and far from fleeting,” they wrote. “He repeatedly facilitated changes to state law impacting countless energy consumers in northern Illinois, all because ComEd funneled money to the right people. Madigan insists that this was run-of-the-mill politics. But a jury of twelve Illinois residents saw the evidence differently. So do we.”

Madigan is currently serving his sentence at a federal prison in West Virginia. Records show he has a projected release date of Jan. 3, 2032.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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