(The Center Square) – Michael Madigan’s defense team has resumed closing arguments at the former Illinois House speaker’s corruption trial in Chicago.
“Job recommendations without more, are legal,” Madigan attorney Dan Collins told the jury Monday morning at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.
“There has to be a this for that,” Collins said of the bribery charges against Madigan.
Collins said juries are the wall in a human process.
“Governments make mistakes. Juries are the wall between a misguided prosecution and the citizen,” Collins argued.
Collins discussed ComEd’s desire for smart grid legislation in late 2010 and pointed to former Madigan counsel Dave Ellis’ testimony that Madigan did not want consumers to “get ripped off.”
Ellis served as Madigan’s chief counsel and special counsel before becoming a state appeals court judge in 2014.
“ComEd did not get what they wanted,” Collins insisted.
The General Assembly passed smart grid legislation over then-Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto in 2011.
Collins called Madigan’s votes for ComEd-supported measures in 2011 and 2013 “a continuation” of the speaker’s support for the legislation going back to 2010 and not official action in exchange for ComEd’s hiring of Madigan allies.
Collins then took aim at ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, who served as a cooperating witness for the government. Marquez could receive no prison time in exchange for his cooperation.
“That’s a hell of a deal,” Collins said.
Collins said Marquez was a witness fighting to keep his deal.
Madigan’s attorney said the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), which passed in 2016, “was a monster.”
“It wasn’t an exchange. … it was done on the merits,” the defense lawyer insisted.
Prosecutors allege that ComEd and AT&T Illinois gave out no-work or little-work jobs and contract work to Madigan allies to get legislation passed that would benefit them in Springfield.
Four 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.
Madigan has pleaded not guilty to 23 corruption-related charges. The longtime politician 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.
Collins said Friday afternoon that he would finish his arguments on Monday. Codefendant Michael McClain’s defense team is slated to follow Collins. Government attorneys would then have an opportunity for a final rebuttal. Judge John Robert Blakey said he would have “about two minutes” of additional instructions for jurors before handing the case to them for a verdict. Blakey previously read about 100 pages of instructions to the jury before closing arguments began last week.