Michael J. Madigan spent decades building a political empire rivaled in Illinois history only by his most storied peers, rising to become the longtime speaker of the state’s House of Representatives, chair of its Democratic Party and head of a powerhouse tax appeal firm.
But in a landmark verdict that could transform the 82-year-old politician into a federal inmate in the twilight of his life, a jury found Madigan guilty Wednesday of a nearly decade-long bribery conspiracy involving ComEd. They also convicted him of a plot to install ex-Ald. Danny Solis on a state board in exchange for Solis’ help securing private business for Madigan’s law firm.
However, the jury stopped far short of delivering the sweeping verdict prosecutors sought.
The panel of eight women and four men acquitted Madigan of attempted extortion and other crimes involving Solis and an apartment project in the West Loop. They failed to reach any decision on claims involving a parking lot in Chinatown or AT&T Illinois.
Most significantly, jurors couldn’t agree whether to find Madigan guilty of a broad racketeering conspiracy, in which he was accused of turning his political empire into a criminal enterprise.
That’s likely cold comfort to the man long known as the “Velvet Hammer.” Madigan, who held the gavel in Springfield for 36 years and was the longest-serving state House leader in the United States, is guilty of 10 counts in all, and he is now a convicted felon.
To add insult to injury, the jury tagged Madigan with that label less than 48 hours after President Donald Trump stripped it from Madigan’s onetime political rival, ex- Gov. Rod Blagojevich, through a full and unconditional pardon.
Like Blagojevich once did, Madigan now faces significant prison time. The most serious counts against him carry a maximum of 20 years in prison. No sentencing hearing has been set.
‘It’s still corrupt’
Jurors also failed to reach any verdict regarding Madigan’s co-defendant, 77-year-old Michael McClain, who later smiled and flashed a thumbs-up in the courthouse lobby. He is still challenging his 2023 conviction for his role in the ComEd bribery conspiracy.
“Bribery, whether it’s the old-fashioned cash stuffed in an envelope or the more refined version practiced by Madigan, is still illegal,” Acting U.S. Attorney Morris “Sonny” Pasqual declared in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse lobby after the verdict was read. “It’s still corrupt, and it’s still against the law.”
The top federal prosecutor said his office had yet to decide whether to take Madigan to trial again on the Chinatown or AT&T Illinois schemes, for which jurors returned no verdict. U.S. District Judge John Blakey scheduled the next hearing in the case for May 5.
The verdict capped an unpredictable four-month trial that gave jurors an upfront and uncensored look at the practice of behind-the-scenes politics in Chicago and Illinois in the previous decade. The panel heard recorded conversations about an “old-fashioned patronage system,” about ComEd contractors making out “like bandits” and how McClain derided utility officials who resisted political hiring pressures as “dumb s—.”
They heard more than 100 secret recordings in all, including many made by Solis. The Chicago Sun-Times first broke the news in January 2019 that Solis had been working undercover for the FBI and detailed one of the first recordings that would be heard by jurors in Madigan’s trial. The newspaper’s reporting directly affected the investigation.
‘Tried our very best to come to a unanimous decision’
The feds’ aggressive push against Chicago-style politics dates back to 2014 and led to criminal charges against roughly 20 people in all. Nine have gone to prison so far. Now Madigan, who left office in 2021 amid the burgeoning investigation, could join them.
The verdict came down in dramatic fashion Wednesday. It followed nearly 65 hours of deliberations over 11 days. Word of a note from the jury arrived a little before 10 a.m. And in it, they warned of a partial deadlock.
“We have come to a unanimous decision on 17 counts,” it said. “We have tried our very best to come to a unanimous decision on the remaining 12 counts and have not been able to do so. It is our belief that this impasse will not be overcome.”
Prosecutors told the judge they were “amenable” to the partial verdict, and Blakey sent a note back to the group advising them that they did “not have to reach a unanimous verdict on all charges,” but any verdict they delivered would be final.
Word of that verdict officially arrived about 15 minutes later. By then, Blakey’s 12th floor courtroom had already swelled with reporters, lawyers and others, including Pasqual. Two of Madigan’s daughters sat in the courtroom’s front row.
Madigan watched as the verdict was delivered to the judge. The former Speaker looked at the floor, offering no expression, as the various counts were read. He betrayed only an occasional, and slight, nod of his head.
Later, Madigan was met by his daughters as he left the courtroom. They touched his shoulder and followed him out. He continued to hold their hands as he walked through the lobby of the courthouse, out of the building and south along South Dearborn, through the snowflakes.
Madigan did not comment to reporters. McClain told them, “My head is spinning.”
‘I don’t think they were all adding up’
Most of the jurors also declined to speak as they left the courthouse. But one, who identified himself as Malik and said he’s from the “inner-city,” discussed the deliberations while standing outside the courthouse. He said they were “productive.”
“I honestly believe we all got our opinions out about the case,” he said. “… I really believe that we all considered each other’s thoughts and feelings.”
When asked about Madigan’s decision to take the stand in his own defense last month, Malik said, “I believe that he was speaking from the truth. From his lens.”
But, Malik added, “when you put all of the pieces together, I don’t think they were all adding up.”
Malik said there were two jurors who were hard to convince. He didn’t answer when asked if he was one of them. He said some jurors also struggled with the testimony from Solis.
“I thought he was a pretty interesting individual,” Malik said. “I don’t think he was telling the truth at all. Maybe. … I don’t think the entire group thought clearly of Danny Solis. We all had our own different views.”
Madigan’s defense attorneys pilloried Solis in closing arguments. The longtime 25th Ward City Council member agreed to wear a wire for the FBI starting in 2016 after agents confronted him with evidence of his own alleged wrongdoing.
The deal he struck with prosecutors means he is unlikely to ever face a criminal conviction, despite a bribery charge filed against him. Madigan’s attorneys tried to show that Solis continued to break the law even while cooperating with the feds, and they insisted to jurors that he was “a malignant tumor at the heart of this case.”
“You cannot trust Danny Solis,” Madigan attorney Dan Collins told the jury last month.
When all was said and done, jurors cleared Madigan of any wrongdoing when it came to his dealings with Solis and developers of a West Loop apartment complex. That’s even though Madigan seemed to struggle, while testifying last month, to explain why he continued to deal with Solis after Solis told Madigan the apartment developers understand “the quid pro quo.”
The jury also reached no conclusion regarding another scheme involving Solis, revolving around a parking lot in Chinatown.
‘Mr. Solis provided testimony in the state board aspect’
However, the jurors found Madigan guilty of three counts of wire fraud and other counts tied to Solis’ bid for a paid seat on a government board. Solis asked for Madigan’s help landing the seat as part of an FBI ruse.
In response, Madigan asked Solis to help him land business at his private tax appeals law firm from the developers of the Old Post Office, and for help connecting his son with a Pilsen not-for-profit. Madigan’s son is in the insurance business, and prosecutors tied $43,000 the son made to an August 2018 conversation between Madigan and Solis.
Madigan’s son is not accused of wrongdoing.
Solis’ secret recordings also helped the feds successfully prosecute former Ald. Edward M. Burke in 2023. So Pasqual delivered a terse response Wednesday when reporters asked about Solis’ value as a witness and his controversial deal.
“Mr. Solis provided testimony in the state board aspect of the case, in which the jury returned guilty verdicts,” Pasqual said. “So that’s that.”
The broadest scheme for which Madigan was convicted Wednesday revolved around ComEd. The jury agreed that Madigan conspired to have ComEd officials pay $1.3 million to his allies over eight years so that he would look favorably at ComEd’s legislation in Springfield.
The recipients were former Alds. Frank Olivo and Michael R. Zalewski, former Cook County Recorder of Deeds Edward Moody, former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo and longtime Madigan campaign worker Raymond Nice.
Of the five, only Acevedo has faced criminal charges, for cheating on his taxes.
But even when it came to the ComEd scheme, jurors did not find Madigan guilty on every count. They acquitted Madigan on one bribery count tied to efforts by Madigan and McClain to install businessman Juan Ochoa on ComEd’s board of directors.
‘Not been told by anybody not to pursue these investigations’
While Madigan’s conviction may represent the peak of the feds’ yearslong push into Chicago corruption, there’s still much work to do. It also comes at a tumultuous time for the Department of Justice under Trump, who was elected four weeks into Madigan’s trial.
McClain’s challenge to his 2023 conviction comes in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year. A follow-up decision by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah could come any day and might result in another trial.
Meanwhile, former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza is set to face trial again in June for allegedly bribing Madigan so that the Speaker would look favorably at the utility’s legislation. La Schiazza faced trial in September, but jurors couldn’t reach a verdict.
That makes Madigan’s jury, with its verdict Wednesday, the second consecutive panel to fail to reach a conclusion on those allegations, which also involve Acevedo.
“The jury failed to reach a verdict, but that’s all we know,” Pasqual said when asked about the AT&T claims in the courthouse lobby. “We don’t know … of a jury split. So that’s really a matter of speculation about how strong — or not so strong — the majority of the jurors felt.”
Pasqual, who has served as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor for two years, also told reporters that “as long as I’m standing here as acting U.S. attorney, I’m very confident we’re going to pursue” cases like Madigan’s.
“This district has a longstanding and a historic tradition of public corruption cases going way back to [former Gov.] Otto Kerner and before that,” Pasqual said. “… We’ve not been told by anybody not to pursue these investigations, and we fully expect to continue to do so.”
Contributing: Emmanuel Camarillo