Jury selection begins next week in corruption trial of former Speaker Madigan

CHICAGO – Jury selection will begin next week in the corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, whose half-century career and status as Illinois’ most powerful politician ended nearly four years ago as the feds circled ever-closer to his inner circle.

The 82-year-old ex-speaker faces 24 counts of bribery and racketeering – along with his longtime friend and powerful Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain – in a case that frames Madigan’s power in government, politics and as a partner in his law firm as a criminal enterprise.

The trial, which is scheduled to last through mid-December, is the culmination of more than a decade of digging by the FBI and prosecutors, and it’s the final in a series of related cases that have played out in Chicago’s federal courthouse over the last few years.

The feds have already won convictions and guilty pleas from many in Madigan’s orbit, including McClain. He and three former executives for electric utility Commonwealth Edison were found guilty last year in a case accusing them of bribing Madigan with jobs and do-nothing contracts for the speaker’s political allies in order to grease the wheels for legislation favorable to ComEd.

Some of those political allies who got contracts at ComEd and telecommunications giant AT&T Illinois have faced tax evasion charges and are either serving or have already completed prison sentences.

Also last year, the former speaker’s longtime and extremely loyal chief of staff Tim Mapes was convicted on two counts of perjury and attempted obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury investigating Madigan and his inner circle.

Most recently, however, a jury last month deadlocked in the trial of former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza, who was accused of bribing Madigan via a do-nothing job for the speaker’s political ally in 2017. Arguments for his acquittal are scheduled for next month.

Though that trial’s outcome was a hopeful development for Madigan, it’s unclear if it will have any bearing on the former speaker’s own case, which is much larger and more complex.

Madigan’s trial, which was originally scheduled for this past spring, was delayed while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a case that dealt with federal bribery statute. That decision, issued in June, narrowed the definition of “bribery” in federal criminal law to exclude “gratuities” – a gift given to a politician after an “official act” – and said that the “timing of the agreement is the key, not the timing of the payment.”

In response to the ruling, Madigan’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge John Blakey to dismiss some of the bribery charges in the case, claiming prosecutors failed to allege a “quid pro quo” occurred between the former speaker and entities like ComEd and AT&T.

But Blakey this week sided with prosecutors, who have pursued a so-called “stream of benefits” legal theory, wherein a pattern of corrupt exchanges over a long period of time is proof enough of a quid pro quo, even if there’s no smoking gun evidence of a handshake deal.

“Contrary to Defendants’ characterization, the indictment does not merely allege that ComEd hired certain individuals recommended by Madigan and that, during the same time period, Madigan happened to vote in favor of certain legislation affecting ComEd,” Blakey wrote in his order Wednesday. “Rather, it explicitly alleges that Madigan performed official acts related to legislation affecting ComEd in exchange for ComEd’s hiring of certain individuals.”

Blakey this summer made a series of pretrial decisions for the Madigan case, which will be one of the most high-profile political corruption cases this century, along with last year’s trial of Chicago Alderman Ed Burke and former Govs. Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan.

Because of the high-profile nature of the case, Blakey has laid out a schedule for jury selection that will take at least four days, beginning with an extensive questionnaire for the 180 prospective jurors. And when questioning of the jury pool begins on Wednesday, no names will be used and news media will be barred from the courtroom, only able to watch via an overflow room elsewhere in the courthouse.

Opening statements in the case are likely to begin Oct. 15 although Blakey this week said jury selection should take as long as it needs. The trial is scheduled through Dec. 13.

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