Michael McClain, a longtime confidant of ex-speaker Michael Madigan, was a smart and diligent lobbyist who never agreed to or knew about any bribery scheme, his attorney told jurors Tuesday in closing arguments in Madigan and McClain’s landmark public corruption trial.
A lawyer for former House Speaker Michael Madigan is scheduled to continue his final pitch to the jury Monday by attacking allegations of a ComEd bribery scheme as well as the FBI mole at the center of the landmark case: ex-Ald. Daniel Solis.
Michael Madigan was so important to ComEd’s legislative agenda in Springfield that the utility was willing to bend over backwards to make the then-powerful House speaker happy, showering his cronies with do-nothing contracts, giving special treatment to 13th Ward internship applicants, and putting a Madigan-recommended candidate on its board of directors, a federal prosecutor argued Thursday.
After three months, more than five dozen witnesses and an array of thorny legal scuffles, attorneys in the landmark corruption trial of ex-speaker Michael Madigan are slated to begin presenting closing arguments Wednesday.
The outcome of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s corruption trial will be watched closely well beyond the federal courthouse, with the verdict representing a potential make-or-break moment at the Illinois Capitol.
Lawyers for former House Speaker Michael Madigan formally rested their case before the jury on Thursday after calling 12 witnesses, most notably Madigan himself.
The former top legal counsel to House Speaker Michael Madigan testified at Madigan’s corruption trial Wednesday that key legislation being pushed by ComEd and AT&T came amid a “political war” with then-Gov. Bruce Rauner and only passed after months of negotiations and compromise.
Former House Speaker Michael Madigan was grilled at his corruption trial on Tuesday about a comment caught on federal wiretaps, when Madigan said he “put a knife” into then-Senate President John Cullerton during a meeting with Gov.-elect JB Pritzker.
Former House Speaker Michael Madigan is expected to face a tough cross-examination by prosecutors in his federal corruption trial Monday, in what promises to be a defining moment in the landmark case.
Four years after resigning his seat in the legislature amid a burgeoning federal corruption investigation, Madigan is banking on his word once again and rolling the dice by testifying at his trial.