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Judge denies Michael Madigan's motion for new trial, setting stage for high-stakes sentencing Friday

Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune on

Published in News & Features

CHICAGO — A federal judge on Monday denied a motion by former House Speaker Michael Madigan seeking to overturn his recent conviction on bribery and other corruption counts, setting the stage for a high-stakes sentencing hearing later this week.

Madigan, 83, was back in the federal courtroom for the first time since a jury convicted him nearly four months ago. But unlike his marathon trial, Monday’s hearing was brief.

After both sides waived oral arguments on the defense motion, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey announced he was denying it, though his ruling, which he said is more than 100 pages long, won’t be made public for some time.

Madigan sat through the 15-minute hearing without comment and walked out carrying an umbrella.

Blakey is holding another hearing Tuesday to go over issues on the sentencing guidelines in Madigan’s case, which hinge partly on how much money ComEd stood to gain because of legislation the speaker helped usher through the legislative process.

Madigan’s attorneys are also asking Blakey to strike language from a prosecution filing last Friday revealing for the first time publicly that Madigan “has amassed a personal fortune of more than $40 million” — a disclosure reported by the Tribune over the weekend.

The defense wrote in a motion filed ahead of Monday’s hearing that Madigan served the public as a legislator and lawyer for more than 60 years and “chose frugality over extravagance, remaining in the same modest home for more than fifty years while making prudent savings and investment choices.”

“The government offers zero evidence — absolutely nothing — to justify broadcasting specific details about his net worth,” the motion stated. “The government’s decision to splash his personal financial information across a public filing represents a gross breach of the rules.”

Blakey said he’d take up the issue on Tuesday.

Madigan’s sentencing, set for Friday afternoon, is one of the most highly anticipated hearings in years at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. Prosecutors have asked for a hefty 12 1/2 year prison term and $1.5 million fine, while the defense is seeking probation along with a period of home confinement.

Madigan’s defense team filed a motion in March arguing for a new trial in his corruption case, saying prosecutors failed to prove the then-powerful Democrat knew about a scheme by ComEd to pay off his associates and alleging Blakey made a series of mistakes in his evidentiary rulings.

 

The 73-page motion alleged those errors tainted the jury with highly prejudicial evidence, and asked Blakey to reverse the jury’s verdict on certain guilty counts and grant a new trial on others.

Among the missteps that Madigan’s legal team says warrants a new trial: letting in a now-infamous FBI wiretap where Madigan tells his longtime confidant, Michael McClain, that some ComEd contractors “made out like bandits” for little work; allowing the jury to hear prejudicial testimony about sexual harassment allegations; and including a recorded phone call between McClain and the speaker’s son, Andrew Madigan, about another public utility, Peoples Gas, being forced to make political hires.

The defense filing also argued that despite the jury’s guilty verdict, prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Madigan knew about any scheme to enrich his friends or that there was a “this-for-that” agreement to help shepherd ComEd’s legislation in Springfield.

“Michael Madigan is not corrupt. He never exchanged his duty to serve his constituents for private benefit — the essence of corruption,” the filing stated. “For decades, Madigan sought to ensure ComEd did not get away with ripping off consumers in Illinois. Madigan’s primary purpose was to work hard for his community and the Democratic party.”

Such post-trial motions are routine and rarely granted. But the filing provides a blueprint for a likely appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Madigan’s trial capped one of the most significant political corruption investigations in Chicago’s checkered history. It also cemented an extraordinary personal fall for Madigan, the longest-serving state legislative leader in the nation’s history who for decades held an iron-tight grip on the House as well as the state Democratic Party.

After 11 days of deliberation, the jury’s final verdict was mixed. Madigan was convicted of 10 of 23 counts, including marquee allegations that he agreed to squeeze lucrative, do-nothing contracts from ComEd for pals such as former Alds. Frank Olivo and Michael Zalewski and precinct captains Ray Nice and Edward Moody, all while the utility won a series of major legislation victories.

Madigan was also convicted on six out of seven counts — including wire fraud and Travel Act violations — regarding a plan to get ex-Alderman Daniel Solis, a key FBI mole who testified at length in the trial, appointed to a state board.

Jurors deadlocked on all six counts related to Madigan’s co-defendant McClain.

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