With allegations of corruption at the highest levels of state government, the racketeering trial of former Democratic House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and his longtime confidant, ex-lobbyist Michael McClain, is certainly serious business.
But as with any lengthy trial, particularly one chock-full of big personalities and scores of undercover wiretaps, there were plenty of funny and off-the-wall moments during the 16 weeks of proceedings.
Here are some of the highlights:
The strangely apropos Madigan & Getzendanner hold music
Given the outsized lore of Madigan as a Machiavellian figure who preferred to rule in shadow, there’s perhaps no better — or weirder — selection for his law firm hold music than “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” the 1875 orchestral classic depicting Peer Gynt’s fantasy about meeting the Norwegian troll king Dovregubben.
The jury learned this odd fact when prosecutors played a key wiretapped conversation from June 2017, which began when FBI mole Daniel Solis called the speaker back at Madigan & Getzendanner. “One moment please,” the receptionist said, before the ominous sounds of percolating bassoons and cellos slowly filled the courtroom … bup bup bup bup BUP bup bup … interrupted when Madigan picked up with a friendly, “Hey Danny.”
The amazing disappearance of Bob Rita
State Rep. Bob Rita had famously testified in the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial that his former boss Madigan ruled the House “through fear and intimidation,” so when he hit the stand as one of the first prosecution witnesses in Madigan’s case, anticipation of a repeat performance was high.
But Rita, a Blue Island Democrat, was questioned only for about 10 minutes on Oct. 24 before trial was recessed for the day. Shortly before Rita was to return the next morning, something was clearly amiss, with a lengthy delay and prosecutors and agents scrambling through documents and on cellphones. Rita was spotted waiting in the hallway with his attorney, but when the jury returned, the judge told them Rita’s testimony would be “taken out of turn,” for reasons unexplained.
But Rita never returned, not that day or in the weeks that followed. Finally, as the prosecution’s case in chief was wrapping up on Dec. 16, the judge told the jury to essentially pretend they never saw him.
“He will not be joining us for the trial,” U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey said. “You are to totally disregard all the questions and answers.”
Rita, who does still in fact exist, has so far declined to comment on what happened.
Win one for the Gipper? The Notre Dame factor
Q: How often has a major public corruption trial coincided with a national college football playoff where the alma mater of both the lead defendant and the judge advanced to the championship game?
A: Never, of course. Until now.
The Fighting Irish’s playoff push became a hot topic of conversation late in the trial. During exhaustive arguments over jury instructions in early January, attorneys had spent what seemed like an eternity discussing whether one small phrase amid the 100-plus pages of instructions should be a single or double quote. Lead prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu said he couldn’t believe they were still talking about it, prompting Blakey to say, quite calmly, “That’s OK. When I miss the kickoff of the Sugar Bowl I’ll know why that happened.”
Notre Dame beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to advance to the National Championship.
The jury also heard plenty about Notre Dame in testimony. In one wiretapped conversation from 2018, McClain and Solis started talking about Madigan’s favorite teams, and McClain issued the alderman a stern warning: “You don’t wanna watch the Notre Dame game with him.”
“He’s crazy. I mean, he’s yelling and screaming all the time, so you don’t wanna sit in the room, in the living room with him and watch a Notre Dame game. … He gets pretty passionate,” McClain warned.
During his testimony Jan. 7, Madigan explained to the jury that going to Notre Dame was “a pre-ordained decision” in his household.
“We were a Catholic family. At the time, Notre Dame was considered the premier Catholic school. There was never any question in the house. That’s where I was going to go.”
A week after Madigan left the stand, it was time for the Big Game. Before breaking for the weekend, one of Madigan’s attorneys asked the judge if he had any predictions.
“Sister Mary Agnes said you should never bet on the Irish because God will punish me,” Blakey said. “I’ll keep my thoughts to myself, although I’m sure everyone knows exactly how I want it to turn out.”
The judge was also asked if he was going to the game, but he said tickets were hard to come by — especially at his meager donation level.
“Would you like some 50-yard-line tickets?” Madigan attorney Tom Breen joked.
Blakey laughed, saying, “I don’t know if that was a bribe or a gratuity, but I’m neither soliciting it nor accepting it.”
Ohio State beat Notre Dame 34-23.
Pizza, wine and cream of broccoli soup? Secret recordings captured a lot about … food.
Sure, the jury saw a lot of insider politicking going on in the wiretapped phone calls and undercover videos. But often, the tapes provided a window into some of their targets’ everyday lives, right down to their eating habits.
“So, they have three soups,” Madigan told his wife, Shirley, in a June 2018 conversation recorded from McClain’s wiretapped cellphone. “Cream of broccoli, spinach with egg drops …”
The slice of life was played for jurors in an apparent attempt to reinforce that Madigan and McClain were unusually close — and to remind them that Madigan did not have his own cellphone.
Another recording captured Madigan, exhausted at the end of a contentious legislative session, asking McClain, “You wanna come over for some wine?” And an FBI special agent also testified to the co-defendants’ closeness by noting how often they had dinner together, and specified that some of their usual haunts included the now-shuttered Sangamo Club and Alexander’s Steakhouse in Springfield, as well as Coco Pazzo and the Union League Club in Chicago.
Bruna’s, an old-school Italian joint in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, was a particular favorite of the speaker’s, jurors learned. He even apparently pulled strings to get their phone fixed, according to a secretly recorded conversation with FBI mole Daniel Solis.
“So, I called like 20 times. It wouldn’t go through. So, I just went there. I said, ‘Your phones aren’t working.’” Madigan recalled. “And so, two days later I’m back and, uh, his wife is there and they had set up the calls going to her cellphone. They can’t get the landline going.”
Madigan explained that he wound up “making a call to one of the lobbyists for AT&T” to get someone out to the restaurant to fix the problem.
Some of the tapes captured the participants not just talking about food, but also eating it. In one such undercover video from Saputo’s restaurant in Springfield, a popular political meet-up, McClain was seen munching on what looked like sausage pizza while then-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, who was also secretly cooperating with the FBI, recorded him from a hidden camera.
In his closing argument, McClain’s attorney Patrick Cotter issued a bemused apology on behalf of his client, lest any jurors take offense that he talked with his mouth full.
“He didn’t know he was being recorded, or he would have eaten his pizza much more attractively than he did,” Cotter joked.
A punching bag doll and a knife in the back? Madigan’s penchant for political grudges were on display
While prosecutors have portrayed Madigan as a ruthless and all-powerful boss, he tried to sell himself in his testimony as a non-confrontational consensus builder, saying he learned early on from a key mentor, Democratic state Rep. Zeke Giorgi of Rockford, that “it’s important that you understand everybody comes with their own ideas. Everybody should be given due respect.”
Jurors saw other evidence, however, that respect with Madigan was certainly a two-way street. In one undercover video, which was recorded by Solis in Madigan’s office a few days after his No. 1 political nemesis, Republican Bruce Rauner, lost his reelection bid in November 2018, Madigan seemed positively giddy to have vanquished his longtime foe.
Leaned against the wall behind Madigan as he spoke was what appeared to be a life-size punching bag printed with Rauner’s grinning face.
But the speaker’s political grudges weren’t just against politicians from the other side of the aisle. That same month, after Madigan met with Gov.-elect JB Pritzker, he got to score some points against a rival within his own camp — John Cullerton, the then-president of the Illinois Senate who had been behind some political ads painting Madigan in a less-than-favorable light, according to evidence seen by the jury.
“I think it went pretty well,” Madigan told McClain on a wiretapped call about the Pritzker meeting. “I put the knife into Cullerton three or four times.”
When Bhachu confronted Madigan with the recording on cross-examination, he got the ex-speaker to acknowledge Cullerton is godfather to Madigan’s son.
“And you’re talking about putting a knife into Cullerton, is that right?” Bhachu asked.
“Correct,” Madigan said.
“You were figuratively discussing putting a knife into Cullerton,” Bhachu clarified.
With a chuckle, Madigan repeated, “Correct.”
