Attorneys to make final pitches at Madigan corruption trial

[January 22, 2025]  By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Closing arguments are set to begin Wednesday at the corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in Chicago.

Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of bribery, racketeering and official misconduct in a trial that began with jury selection on Oct. 8.

Chicago attorney Sam Adam Jr. represented Rod Blagojevich in the former Illinois governor’s first corruption trial in 2010. Adam said the government has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Just because it may look like smoke and smell like smoke, they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Is the evidence so clear that it has to be fire? That’s the only way you can convict, because it has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and you’ll see the lawyers circle to that theme many, many times in closing arguments,” Adam told The Center Square.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins prosecuted former Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s corruption case in 2005 and 2006.

“There’s two parts to the closing. There’s the summation where you lay out the evidence with some argument, and then there’s the rebuttal,” Collins told The Center Square.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amar Bhachu, Diane MacArthur, Julia Schwartz and Sarah Streicker have presented evidence and questioned witnesses on behalf of the government during the Madigan trial. Streicker delivered opening arguments on Oct. 21.

“This is a case about corruption at the highest level of state government,” Streicker said.

Schwartz and MacArthur are lined up to present closing arguments for the government.

“I think you see typically, and Diane does this better than anybody in that office in a summation way, just laying out methodically the evidence and building it brick by brick,” Collins said.

A frame from an undercover video featuring then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan meeting with cooperating witness then-Chicago Alderman Daniel Solis on Oct. 26, 2018.

Another Chicago attorney who has tried cases in federal court described Schwartz as “young, but very well-respected.”

Prosecutors’ arguments are expected to extend into Thursday. Defense teams for Madigan and McClain are slated to follow with their presentations. Bhachu is then expected to present the government’s rebuttal.

Judge John Robert Blakey has suggested that he would have more than 100 pages of instructions for the jury.

U.S. government attorneys allege that ComEd and AT&T Illinois gave out no-work or little-work jobs and contract work to those loyal to Madigan to get legislation passed that would benefit them in Springfield. McClain and three other ComEd executives and lobbyists were convicted in 2023 in a related trial, and ComEd itself agreed to pay $200 million in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors. AT&T agreed to pay $23 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors.

Madigan and McClain are also accused of using Madigan’s position of power to steer business to the former speaker’s private law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner.

Madigan served in the Illinois House for 50 years and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He also chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years.

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

Jury deliberations are expected to begin sometime in the next week at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.

Brett Rowland contributed to this story.