Rita Crundwell infamously charted a new chapter in Illinois’ storied corruption saga by committing what the FBI believes to be the largest theft of public funds in U.S. history. She’s among the 1,500 “non-violent offenders” whose sentence was commuted Thursday by President Joe Biden, in the nation’s largest single-day act of clemency.

A federal judge has rejected a motion for acquittal from former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza, whose alleged efforts to bribe Michael Madigan are now being laid out for jurors in the ex-House speaker’s ongoing corruption trial.

Solis’ undercover work helped bring down two of Illinois’ biggest and longest-serving Democratic powerbrokers. Former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke is now serving a two-year prison sentence after his bribery, racketeering and extortion convictions last December, while the corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is in its seventh week of testimony. 

The longtime 25th Ward alderperson, who is testifying under a deferred prosecution agreement, marks the most substantial witness in the government's case against the former House Speaker. He is expected to testify for several days.

District Judge John Blakey on Wednesday denied a defense motion seeking to toss out a handful of charges, including bribery counts, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling narrowed the federal bribery statute — known as “section 666” — in a ruling earlier this year.

Former Ald. Ed Burke is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Thomson, Illinois, nearly 150 miles west of his beloved hometown. He will begin his two-year prison sentence.

After nearly 15 hours of deliberation over three days, the jury’s foreperson told U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman that she was “absolutely positive” she and her fellow jurors could not find a way out of their stalemate.

It’s up to a jury to decide whether Paul La Schiazza, who retired from AT&T in 2019, intended that contract as a bribe to then House Speaker Michael Madigan in order to ensure the passage of AT&T’s prized legislation, as the feds have alleged. 

Former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza is accused of bribing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for the passage of legislation that was important to AT&T.

Former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza is accused of bribing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for the passage of legislation that was important to AT&T.

Former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza is accused of bribing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for the passage of legislation that was important to AT&T.

Former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza is accused of bribing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan — a politician he described as “all-powerful” and “King Madigan” in email snippets shown to the jury — in exchange for the passage of legislation that was important to AT&T.

U.S. District Court Judge John F. Kness ordered former Ald. Carrie Austin, 75, to undergo a physical examination by an expert doctor to determine whether she is too ill to stand trial, as her lawyers insist.

Charles Cui, 53, of Lake Forest, was convicted in December alongside Ed Burke of one count of federal program bribery, three counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and one count of making a false statement to the FBI. 

Prosecutors late Tuesday filed their response to Madigan’s co-defendant, Michael McClain, whose attorneys last month filed a motion seeking to sever his case from Madigan’s before the men are set to go to trial on racketeering charges later this year.

Charles Cui, 53, of Lake Forest, was convicted in December alongside Ed Burke of one count of federal program bribery, three counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.