Jury instruction conference set at ex-Illinois House speaker’s corruption trial

[January 02, 2025]  By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Attorneys are expected to discuss jury instructions Thursday at the federal corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in Chicago.

Judge John Robert Blakey had scheduled the jury to return Thursday, but, with the charge conference for attorneys now scheduled Thursday, the jury won’t return until Monday, Jan. 6.

Jurors last appeared at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Dec. 19, when Madigan’s defense team began presenting its case.

Government attorneys rested their case on Wednesday, Dec. 18.

St. Xavier University Professor David Parker said much of the material prosecutors presented was introduced in previous trials.

“There were the AT&T cases and the ComEd Four. Everything’s kind of been, like the witness testimony, kind of repetitive and all. I think there hasn’t been any major surprises in anything,” Parker said.

Jurors last year convicted all four defendants in the ComEd Four trial, in which utility executives and lobbyists were accused of participating in a multi-year scheme to gain Madigan’s support for legislation that would benefit the utility's bottom line. ComEd itself agreed to pay $200 million in a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors.

Parker said prosecutors presented a great deal of circumstantial evidence, including a secretly recorded July 18, 2017, meeting when Madigan instructed then-Chicago Alderman Daniel Solis not to use the words, “quid pro quo.”

“If this comes out, it’s supposed to be, you’re just making a recommendation. Let’s make sure, on record, it’s a recommendation, not something for something,” Parker explained.

All the defense needs, according to Parker, is one sympathetic juror.

“I mean, there’s enough there to go either way over the fence. I haven’t really seen anything that just point blank says, man, guilty, period, done,” Parker said.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan outside the federal court building in Chicago Dec. 4, 2024 - Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

Madigan’s defense team began calling witnesses and presenting evidence on Thursday, Dec. 19. Codefendant Michael McClain’s team rested its case the day before, after testimony from one witness, former AT&T executive Steve Selcke.

The last witness on the stand Dec. 19 was Madigan’s former chief counsel, David Ellis, who is now an appellate judge for the First District Court in Illinois.

Ellis said he served as assistant counsel to the speaker from about 1999-2000, returned to Madigan’s office as chief counsel from 2006-2007 and as special counsel in Chicago from 2012-2014, when he was elected to his current position as Illinois appellate court justice.

Ellis testified that Madigan basically ran his campaign when he first ran for judicial office and that McClain donated to his campaign fund.

Ellis also testified during the ComEd Four trial last year, which ended with McClain and three others being convicted of conspiracy, bribery and falsifying records. Ellis is expected to resume testimony at the Madigan trial on Jan. 6.

A federal indictment accused Madigan of leading for nearly a decade a criminal enterprise whose purpose was to enhance Madigan’s political power and financial well-being while also generating income for his political allies and associates. The indictment also alleges that Madigan directed McClain’s activities and that McClain carried out illegal activities at Madigan’s behest.

Madigan and McClain have pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of bribery, racketeering and official misconduct.

Madigan served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021 and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years.

McClain was a longtime lobbyist who previously served as a state representative in Illinois’ 48th district from 1973 to 1982.

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