Judge denies ex-Speaker Madigan’s request to remain out of prison during
appeal
[August 09, 2025]
By Hannah Meisel
CHICAGO — A federal judge on Friday denied former Illinois Speaker
Michael Madigan’s legal arguments that he should remain out of prison
while his appeal of both his corruption convictions and 7 ˝ year
sentence play out.
Madigan is scheduled to report to prison on Oct. 13, though the federal
Bureau of Prisons has not yet assigned him a facility. The former
speaker, whose 36-year reign in Springfield made him the longest-serving
legislative leader in U.S. history, has already begun the appellate
process, though his full arguments aren’t due for another few weeks.
U.S. District Judge John Blakey, who presided over Madigan’s lengthy
trial this past fall and winter and sentenced Madigan to his lengthy
prison term in June, wrote in a 44-page order Friday that the
ex-speaker’s “entire motion rides on routine, and meritless” objections.
“As such, he clings to false hope,” Blakey wrote.
In February, a jury delivered a split verdict for Madigan, convicting
him on 10 of 23 corruption-related charges, including bribery and wire
fraud. The jury acquitted Madigan on seven counts and deadlocked on
another six, but the 10 on which he was convicted involved electric
utility Commonwealth Edison and dealings with Chicago
alderman-turned-FBI mole Danny Solis, who introduced Madigan to
high-powered real estate developers as potential clients for the
speaker’s property tax appeals firm.
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Former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan departs the Dirksen
Federal Courthouse after receiving a 7 ˝-year prison sentence on
corruption charges on June 13, 2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by
Andrew Adams)
Blakey wrote that Madigan’s arguments to remain free during his appeal
don’t meet the high bar of raising “a substantial question of law or
fact.”
The ex-speaker recently hired a team of attorneys who have years of
experience arguing at the U.S. Supreme Court. Madigan’s legal strategy
centers around the definition of “bribery,” which the high court last
summer examined in a case that delayed the former speaker’s case.
Some of those convicted of bribing Madigan, including former ComEd CEO
Anne Pramaggiore and longtime Springfield lobbyist and Madigan confidant
Mike McClain, are also planning appeals on the same grounds.
Earlier this summer, Pramaggiore, McClain and the two other members of
theso-called “ComEd Four” were sentenced to prison terms ranging from a
year and a day to two years for their roles in orchestrating the bribery
scheme.
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