(The Center Square) – Michael Madigan’s defense team has begun closing arguments at the former Illinois House speaker’s corruption trial in Chicago.
Madigan attorney Dan Collins opened Friday afternoon by quoting his client, who has pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of corruption.
“When people ask for help, if possible, I try to help them,” Collins said, repeating Madigan’s words.
“Mike is not corrupt. Mike is not about power. Mike is not about profit,” Collins argued.
“In this case, the government sees the myth. They do not see the man,” he added, saying prosecutors were depending on the “cynicism” of the jurors.
“It’s false,” Collins asserted. “The government’s evidence fails.”
Collins told jurors they were Madigan’s peers.
“Do not look at him as another public official,” Collins instructed. “You cannot let the government take little moments in time and make a connection.”
Collins asked jurors to remember that the indictment against Madigan is not evidence.
“Just because the government says it, does not make it so,” Collins said.
As he discussed the charge against Madigan related to AT&T, Count 23, Collins displayed a transcript of Illinois appellate court Justice David Ellis’ testimony on Madigan’s behalf earlier in the trial. Ellis served as Madigan’s chief counsel and then as Madigan’s special counsel before Madigan supported his election to the appeals court bench in 2014.
In his testimony, Ellis explained why he did not support carrier-of-last-resort (COLR) legislation which AT&T favored. The COLR measure did not pass until several years later in 2017. Collins said the timeline did not support the government’s argument.
U.S. government attorneys allege that ComEd and AT&T Illinois gave out no-work or little-work jobs and contract work to those loyal to Madigan to get legislation passed that would benefit them in Springfield.
Collins displayed an email from then-AT&T President Paul La Schiazza that emphasized Madigan’s support for organized labor.
In September 2024, a judge declared a mistrial after a jury deadlocked, 11-1, on charges that La Schiazza bribed Madigan.
Regarding AT&T’s payments to former state Rep. Eddie Acevedo, D-Chicago, Collins displayed emails that suggested that Acevedo asked if he would need to go to Springfield as part of his deal with the company.
“This was not a no-show offer,” Collins said.
Collins said AT&T would have paid Acevedo the additional $500 per month he asked for if the company really believed that COLR legislation depended on the deal.
“It doesn’t add up,” Collins said.
Collins said Acevedo’s change in tone about AT&T’s offer was the result of Madigan co-defendant Michael McClain’s intervention and by Madigan’s control. Collins said AT&T made the decision on Acevedo.
“It’s not a Madigan thing. It’s not even a McClain thing,” Collins said.
Collins said the Acevedo of December 2024 was not the same man Madigan knew in January 2017. Collins read a statement by an unnamed representative a few months earlier.
“He really has a record of working hard on behalf of his community,” the statement read.
Acevedo was sentenced in 2022 to six months in prison for tax evasion.
Collins cited Acevedo’s dementia and difficulties with remembering details during his testimony last month.
Collins asked the jury why Madigan would help Acevedo, especially after he was no longer a state representative.
“Because Mike Madigan helps people,” Collins said.
Collins thanked jurors and said Madigan appreciated the level of attention they were giving the case.
“Yours is the most important decision in Mike Madigan’s life,” Collins said.
Before the court recessed, Collins added that former Chicago Alderman Daniel Solis was “not just a walking microphone.”
“He’s an actor in a stage production,” Collins said, promising to talk more about Solis next week.
Before the jury returned to the courtroom Friday afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu objected to one of the defense team’s slides, which asserted, “Extortion is another form of bribery.”
Judge John Robert Blakey sustained the objection and instructed the defense to change the slide to, “Extortion is similar to bribery.”
Earlier Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur wrapped up her presentation to conclude the government’s closing arguments, which lasted more than 11 hours between Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning.
“We have proven to you beyond a reasonable doubt each of the counts in the indictment,” MacArthur said.
After thanking the jury for their dedicated service, MacArthur said, “Madigan and McClain used and abused their positions, whether public official or private role. They did it to maintain Madigan’s power and to obtain profit for his personal gain.”
“The corrupt way was the way it was, the way it continued to be, but that is not the way the law says it should be,” MacArthur said.
Before closing, MacArthur addressed Count 1, a racketeering conspiracy charge against Madigan and McClain. MacArthur and fellow Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz referred to Count 1 as an “umbrella charge.”
MacArthur said Madigan and McClain worked together on a conspiracy to commit a crime.
“One gave the orders. One executed them,” MacArthur said.
MacArthur said the government did not have to prove that the racketeering actually occurred. She said the government did have to prove that the defendants knowingly conspired to participate in racketeering activity.
MacArthur said the racketeering activity referred to two state bribery statutes, two state misconduct statutes, and two federal statutes regarding extortion and unlawful use of a facility.
“The Enterprise,” MacArthur said, consisted of Madigan and McClain, along with the Office of the Speaker, the 13th Ward Democratic Organization and Madigan’s private law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner.
MacArthur said the enterprise had three main goals: to preserve and enhance Madigan’s power and profit, to reward allies, workers and associates for loyalty, and to generate income through illegal activities.
MacArthur said Madigan, when he testified earlier this month, tried to distance himself from McClain and said he “sometimes” turned to McClain.
“McClain was not the sometimes person. He was the always person,” MacArthur said.
MacArthur said Madigan and McClain used utilities as “benefit fulfillment centers” because utilities required legislation to fulfill their financial needs.
She played a call recorded on May 23, 2018, between McClain and the former speaker’s son, Andrew Madigan.
“I just love these people that, they are in a regulatory body, right? And they’re offended if people ask for favors. Hello?” McClain said.
McClain and three other ComEd executives and lobbyists were convicted in 2023 in the related ComEd Four trial, and ComEd itself agreed to pay $200 million in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors. AT&T agreed to pay $23 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors.
Closing arguments are expected to finish next week. Judge Blakey said he would then have “about two minutes” of additional instruction to jurors before they receive the case for deliberations.
Taraleigh Davis, assistant professor of Public Law and Political Science at Bradley University, said the jury has a lot to consider.
“Now we’ve gone through three months, 50 witnesses, a decade of investigation by the federal government. Hopefully, closing arguments … will tie that together for the jurors,” Davis told The Center Square.
Madigan served in the Illinois House for 50 years and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He also chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years.
McClain was a longtime lobbyist who previously served as a state representative in Illinois’ 48th district from 1973 to 1982.
United States of America vs. Michael Madigan and Michael McClain is scheduled to resume Monday at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.
Greg Bishop and Brett Rowland contributed to this story.
