CHICAGO (CN) — Federal prosecutor Julia Schwartz re-stated the government’s most basic accusation against ex-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and his co-defendant Mike McClain on Wednesday, during closing arguments of an over three-month long corruption trial.
She said they worked to exploit Madigan’s public office for private gain.
“Power and profit. That’s what drove Madigan, with the help of McClain, to break the law,” Schwartz told the jury.
Madigan served in the Illinois House for 50 years before retiring in 2021, and led it as speaker for 36 years. He also served as chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois for over two decades.
Throughout trial prosecutors have painted Madigan as a political kingpin — the head of the so-called “Madigan Enterprise.” They claim he used his significant power in Chicago and Springfield to funnel jobs and benefits to his allies, and to direct work to his private law firm Madigan & Getzendanner.
Jurors have heard from more than 60 witnesses over the course of the trial, including Illinois state representatives, a U.S. congressperson, former Chicago aldermen, former business executives and Madigan himself. They also heard dozens of clips from secretly wiretapped phone conversations and saw multiple secretly recorded videos, all collected as part of the government’s yearslong investigation of Madigan and his circle.
He now faces 23 bribery, fraud, racketeering and conspiracy counts for purportedly corrupt conduct between 2011 and 2019. McClain — a veteran lobbyist and Madigan’s close ally going back decades — joins him on six of those counts.
Schwartz emphasized a conspiracy charge against Madigan, which she called “an umbrella charge” that runs throughout much of the rest of the case. Other counts Madigan and McClain face stem from multiple discreet “episodes,” as prosecutors deemed them at the start of trial.
The largest episode involves Madigan’s reported support for energy company ComEd’s legislative agenda in the Illinois House, in exchange for ComEd arranging jobs and benefits for his allies.
McClain figures heavily in this episode, having worked for years as a ComEd contract lobbyist. He is one of the “ComEd Four” of former ComEd lobbyists and executives whom jurors convicted on separate corruption charges in May 2023.
Schwartz focused on ComEd on Wednesday, walking jurors through multiple emails, secretly recorded phone conversations and secretly-taped videos she says demonstrated Madigan knowingly maintained a this-for-that arrangement with the energy company.
The government claims five subcontractors — Chicago political workers Ed Moody and Ray Nice, former Democratic state representative Eddie Acevedo and former Chicago aldermen Frank Olivo and Mike Zalewski Sr. — were paid about $1.3 million collectively between 2011 and 2019 from law and lobbying firms that contracted with ComEd and were operated by Madigan associates. Despite receiving the payments, the government claims the five men did little to no actual work benefitting ComEd in that time.
“They were ghosts. This whole arrangement was a sham,” Schwartz said of the ComEd subcontractors, claiming they were meant only to secure Madigan’s favor as speaker.
Madigan himself testified he was angry at Olivo when he found out the former alderman did no work for ComEd, but Schwartz called his testimony a “facade.”
“Madigan wanted to get money to his loyal soldiers, ComEd wanted to get legislation passed,” the prosecutor said.
Schwartz also touched on ComEd’s contracts with the law firm Reyes Kurson, of which Madigan’s associate Victor Reyes is a partner. Reyes Kurson inked a contract with ComEd in late 2011, and the energy company renewed the contract in 2016. The Illinois legislature passed two major bills benefitting ComEd and its parent company Exelon in that time, the so-called Smart Grid bill in 2011 and the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016.
Schwartz argued Madigan controlled the flow of legislation in the Illinois House “with an iron grip,” and that Reyes Kurson made over $1.8 million off its contracts with ComEd. She also pointed to a January 2016 email where McClain pressured then-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, another of the convicted “ComEd Four,” to renew Reyes Kurson’s contract.
In the email, McClain says that if the issue isn’t handled, “our friend” — meaning Madigan — would get involved. Pramaggiore responded to McClain by telling him she’s “on this.”
“She’s getting directives from a lobbyist about what law firm to hire, and she doesn’t blink,” Schwartz said of Pramaggiore’s response.
Schwartz began her presentation for jurors after U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey spent the morning reading out jury instructions, but trial proceedings ended for the day before she could reach the other episodes of charges Madigan and McClain face.
An episode similar to the ComEd one claims Madigan supported the legislative agenda of AT&T Illinois in 2017 in exchange for Eddie Acevedo getting another do-nothing gig worth $22,500.
A third episode claims Madigan leaned on former Chicago alderman and zoning chair — and eventual FBI informant — Danny Solis, to help direct property developers’ tax legal work to Madigan & Getzendanner. Prosecutors also say Madigan offered to help Solis find a state board job in 2018 with the then-incoming administration of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
Prosecutors also accuse Madigan and McClain of unsuccessfully working to transfer a state-owned parking lot in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood to city ownership. The hope, according to the government, was that Madigan would benefit from the legal business of private property developers who eventually built on the site.
Prosecutors will work through these accusations when they continue closing arguments on Thursday.
The range of accusations demonstrates the extent of the government’s investigation into Madigan. The “ComEd Four” trial revolved around the former speaker. Madigan’s ex-chief of staff Tim Mapes and ex-AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza also faced federal trials in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Jurors convicted Mapes on perjury and obstruction charges in August 2023. La Schiazza’s trial last September on multiple corruption charges ended in a hung jury. He faces re-trial this June.
Defense attorneys for Madigan and McClain will begin their closing arguments once prosecutors have concluded theirs, but it’s unclear if they’ll finish before Friday.
Should jurors convict Madigan and McClain, it will not be the end of their legal fight. Judge Blakey has previously told attorneys that he hopes to immediately move on to forfeiture proceedings for the pair, should they be found guilty.