Michael Madigan Found Guilty of Bribery Conspiracy, Other Charges as Jury Deadlocked on Racketeering – WTTW News
Source: Wttw.com
Michael Madigan, once the state of Illinois’ most powerful politician during his decades-long run as Illinois House Speaker and chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, has now joined the long list of local and state powerbrokers convicted on federal corruption charges.
But Madigan dodged the top count — racketeering conspiracy — and several other charges tied to disgraced former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis after the jury deadlocked on a dozen charges.
Morris Pasqual, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said Wednesday’s convictions “rank high in the annals of criminal cases tried in this court.”
“The citizens of Illinois have a right to honest, clean government,” he said. “They have a right to have the decisions of their elected officials made based on what is good for the public, what is in the common good. They have a right to trust and expect that from their public officials. Michael Madigan breached and violated that trust over and over again.”
Madigan, flanked by his family and attorneys, left the courthouse without comment following the verdict. He faces up to 20 years in prison on some of the charges.
Read More: After Madigan’s Conviction, Lawmakers Ask: Has Illinois Done Enough to Root Out Corruption?
The jury deadlock extended to each of the six charges faced by Madigan’s co-defendant and longtime confidant Michael McClain.
McClain said his head was “spinning” after the verdicts were read off. Asked if he was surprised by the jury deadlock, he responded, “I was surprised I got indicted.”
Madigan was convicted on 10 counts in total, relating to his efforts to secure a valuable state board position for Solis and to the most wide-ranging of the alleged bribery schemes outlined by the government involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison.
McClain and three others were previously convicted of conspiring to bribe Madigan in the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial, though defense attorneys in that case are seeking to have those convictions tossed out.
“We are very glad to be walking out of this building the way Mike walked into it,” McClain’s defense attorney Patrick Cotter told reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Building. “He was an innocent man when he walked in, he’s walking out an innocent man.”
The jury deadlocked or acquitted the former speaker outright on seven other charges relating to three of the five schemes alleged by the government. Two of those related directly to Solis, who operated as an undercover mole for the government, recording years’ worth of calls and conversations with Madigan, McClain and others.
Specifically, Madigan was found not guilty of attempted extortion and three other charges connected to his alleged efforts to illegally steer business to his private tax firm — Madigan & Getzendanner — from developers of the Union West property.
The jury deadlocked on other charges connected to another similar scheme in which Madigan was again accused of attempting to steer business to his firm amid efforts to develop a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown in 2018.
They also deadlocked on a conspiracy count that alleged Madigan and McClain worked with AT&T Illinois leadership to solicit bribes from the phone company. That follows a similar deadlock from a separate federal jury in the trial of former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza, who is set to be retried later this year.
Pasqual said his office has not yet decided whether to retry the charges in this case on which the jury failed to reach a verdict.
“The Madigan verdict by a jury of everyday Illinoisans is an important message to anyone in government — or those thinking about public service — that if you choose corruption you will be found out, and you will be punished,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “This week has been a vital reminder that we must maintain our vigilance in cleaning up government and always put the people we serve first.”
Michael McClain, left, and his attorney Patrick Cotter speak in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal building on Feb. 12, 2025. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)
Solis, the former 25th Ward alderperson and chair of the city’s powerful Zoning Committee, served as the government’s star witness after he secretly recorded numerous conversations, both in-person and over the phone, with Madigan, McClain and others.
The Solis recordings and his lengthy testimony made up some of the most crucial evidence against Madigan in the Chinatown, Union West and state board seat schemes.
While the jury failed to reach a verdict on some of those Solis-related charges, Pasqual said he still believes the former alderperson “provided significant cooperation which contributed in a significant manner to the verdict in this case.”
Solis — who only cooperated after he was confronted by FBI investigators with evidence of his own briber
Read more: Click here