CHICAGO (CN) — A federal jury in Chicago listened to dozens of clips from FBI wiretaps Thursday in the ongoing corruption trial of Mike Madigan, former Speaker for the Illinois House of Representatives. Federal investigators secretly captured the snippets of phone calls between 2018 and 2019, and they were only the first round of some 200 such recordings jurors are expected to hear before trial ends.
Prosecutors played the recordings to establish several points relevant to the government’s case against Madigan. The 82-year-old served as a state representative for 50 years between 1971 and 2021, leading the House as speaker for 36 years. He now stands accused of nearly two dozen criminal charges related to bribery, fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, stemming from five “episodes” going back to 2011.
Among the points prosecutors wanted to establish Thursday was the close relationship between Madigan and his co-defendant Mike McClain. A former Democratic state representative turned energy lobbyist, as well as one of the “ComEd Four” convicted in 2023 on separate corruption charges, prosecutors say McClain served as Madigan’s confidant and lieutenant for years. He’s implicated in several as the same episodes as Madigan, and faces six of the same racketeering, bribery, fraud and conspiracy counts.
Jurors listened to several recordings where Madigan and McClain discussed getting dinner, and others where McClain described Madigan to other associates as his “real” client as a lobbyist.
McClain also sent Madigan and his wife Shirley a letter in December 2016, which jurors saw on Thursday, stating he was retiring as a lobbyist but that he was still willing to perform “assignments” for the then-speaker, “legally and ethically.”
“At the end of the day I am at the bridge with my musket standing with and for the Madigan family. I will never leave your side, Shirley and Mike,” McClain wrote in the letter.
Another batch of recordings from the autumn of 2018 revolved around Lou Lang, a Democratic ex-state representative and former deputy House majority leader who took the witness stand Thursday morning. Lang resigned his position in January 2019 amid sexual misconduct allegations, despite the legislative inspector general clearing him the prior September. Federal prosecutors presented the case that Madigan and McClain worked to push Lang out anyway.
“You know, I think the guy’s gonna be a continuing problem, that’s my expectation. And I mean you can understand my position right?” Madigan told McClain in a September 2018 call jurors heard. “I have to sit and think about what I do with this guy on appointments. Do I appoint him to the leadership or not?”
McClain responded on the call that “he got it.”
“I’ll try to set up a time to have a cup of coffee with him too,” McClain told the then-speaker.
In a November 2018 call, McClain counseled Lang to move on to another career, referencing a woman who had threatened to “go public” if Lang was in a House leadership position.
“So this is no longer me talking. I’m an agent, someone that cares deeply about you, who thinks that you really ought to move on” McClain told Lang in the call.
Lang, in response, that he thought the situation was “bullshit” but that he would never do anything to “damage” or “embarrass” the speaker.
“He’s been very good to me and I’m not gonna do anything nasty to him,” Lang told McClain.
On Thursday, he told prosecutors that he understood this conversation with McClain meant that his legislative career was over.
Lang’s ouster is not directly related to any of the charges Madigan or McClain face, but ties in to prosecutors’ larger strategy to portray Madigan as a political kingpin — the head of the so-called “Madigan Enterprise” — in Springfield and Chicago. Federal prosecutors began making that case earlier this week, calling former Democratic state representatives Carol Sente and Scott Drury to the stand on Tuesday. The former politicians established how the Illinois legislature functions, how Madigan ran his office, and how legislators interacted with him.
All, including Lang, testified that the speaker exercised broad influence over the flow of state legislation via control of different House committee positions. Lang added that Madigan’s ability to fundraise was “a source of his power.”
Despite this, the former lawmakers expressed respect for Madigan and his work to keep the legislative machinery running.
“I don’t know anybody in any career that had as high a work ethic as Michael Madigan,” Lang told Madigan defense attorney Todd Pugh on Thursday.
Madigan and McClains’ defense teams also challenged the prosecution over the level of authority they said Madigan wielded in office. In one notable exchange on Tuesday, Drury testified that bills he was attached to floundered in the legislature after his relationship with Madigan began to deteriorate. Pugh countered by showing jurors at least four bills Drury sponsored in 2017, during his third and final term as a state legislator, that successfully cleared a House vote.
Lang, on Thursday, also commented that Madigan “never instructed [him]” on how to vote.
The trial is expected to continue for at least another 10 weeks.