(The Center Square) – Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s corruption trial is approaching the four month mark.
Jurors are scheduled to resume deliberations Friday at the bribery and racketeering trial of Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain. The trial started with jury selection on Oct. 8 at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.
Jurors began deliberating on Wednesday, Jan. 29, and have deliberated each weekday since that afternoon. Their last note to the judge, which regarded scheduling, was on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
A federal grand jury indicted Madigan on March 2, 2022. Then-U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch said the counts allege that Madigan led a criminal enterprise for nearly a decade.
“The charges allege that Madigan used his various elected and professional positions to further the goals of the criminal enterprise,” Lausch said. “The indictment alleges a long-term, multi-faceted scheme to use public positions for unlawful gain.”
Madigan pleaded not guilty to the 23 corruption-related counts. McClain was charged with six counts and also pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois gave no-work or little-work jobs and contract work to Madigan allies to get legislation passed that would benefit them in Springfield.
In 2023, McClain and three others were convicted in the related ComEd Four trial. ComEd agreed to pay $200 million in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors.
AT&T Illinois agreed to pay $23 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement in 2022.
Madigan and McClain are also accused of using Madigan’s public office to illegally steer business to the former speaker’s private law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner.
Per Judge John Robert Blakey’s instructions, the jury must find the defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in order to deliver a conviction. The judge also advised jurors to consider each defendant separately.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins said the U.S. Supreme Court drew a difficult line when it overturned the bribery conviction of former Portage, Indiana, Mayor James Snyder last year.
“When I was a prosecutor, we had honest services mail fraud, which was a statute. A lot of this stuff here, you would have a problem arguing as a government prosecutor that it crosses the line,” Collins told The Center Square.
Madigan, D-Chicago, served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021 and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years. Madigan also led the 13th Ward Democratic Organization and served as 13th Ward committeeman.
McClain, D-Quincy, became a lobbyist after serving in the Illinois House from 1973 to 1982.
