(The Center Square) – Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has returned to the witness stand for additional cross-examination at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu began questioning Madigan Monday afternoon and said he expected to complete his cross-examination sometime Tuesday.
Bhachu displayed a transcript of a conversation between Madigan and then-Chicago Alderman Daniel Solis in August of 2018 about state board appointments.
“Bob Gierut. I got him appointed. He’s an 11th Ward precinct captain,” Madigan said in the conversation with Solis.
When Bhachu asked what he meant by that statement, Madigan said he recommended Gierut, but there may have been other people who also recommended him.
Madigan admitted that he likely had a lot to do with former 13th Ward precinct captain Ray Nice getting a state board appointment.
Regarding his board recommendations in 2018, Madigan said he was “developing a file” of candidates for J.B. Pritzker to consider once Pritzker was elected governor.
Bhachu introduced a photo of the Prudential building, a skyscraper in downtown Chicago.
“You wanted the tax work for this building, didn’t you sir,” Bhachu asked.
Madigan replied that he wanted an introduction to potentially get tax work for the building.
Bhachu displayed another photo of a building in downtown Chicago and asked Madigan if he wanted the tax business.
“Correct,” Madigan affirmed.
Before the jury entered the courtroom Tuesday morning, Madigan defense attorney Lari Dierks asked for a good-faith instruction to the jury based on a mistake-of-law defense.
“Defense has no burden to prove anything, but he (the defendant) can put forward a theory of defense,” Blakey said. The judge said defense attorneys could make the argument that the judge is misreading the statute even though he, Blakey, did not believe he was misreading the law in this case.
Dierks cited U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including the 2024 decision to overturn former Portage, Indiana, Mayor James Snyder’s bribery conviction.
“Corruptly and willfulness are akin to each other on this front,” Dierks argued, saying that the Snyder case required a corrupt state of mind for a conviction.
Dierks argued that the jury should be instructed that it must acquit if Madigan did not believe his actions were against the law.
Blakey countered that the unreasonable mistake of law that the defense was asserting was not this-for-that ignorance.
The judge said he would consider the matter further when the parties discussed jury instructions next week.
Blakey said he has already given more preview of what’s coming in the instructions that had been given in “any case in the history of this building.”
The judge called for a brief recess when he was informed that two jurors were running late, saying he needed to “caffeinate before I litigate.”
Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain are charged with 23 counts of bribery, racketeering and official misconduct in connection with a scheme that federal prosecutors referred to as “Madigan Enterprise.”
Prosecutors 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. Four 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.
Madigan served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021. He was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. Madigan also chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois from 1998 to 2021.
Prosecutors also allege that Madigan used his position of power to steer business to his law firm.
McClain was a longtime lobbyist who previously served as a state representative in Illinois’ 48th district from 1973 to 1982.
