Attorneys for Michael Madigan opened their final bid to persuade jurors of his innocence by hearkening back to a memorable nickname for the former speaker: the Sphinx.
“The Sphinx is, of course, a mythical creature,” attorney Dan Collins said Friday in closing arguments. “Quiet, mysterious. A myth. In this case, ladies and gentlemen, the government sees the myth. They do not see the man.”
The defense throughout Madigan’s marathon public corruption trial has tried to portray Madigan as a hardworking and humble Southwest Sider who only ever sought to help people through his role at the top of the Illinois political power structure. To reinforce the regular-guy image, Collins on Friday repeatedly referred to his client not as the speaker, not as Mr. Madigan, but as “Mike.”
“The government depends on your cynicism, the cynicism that we have around our public officials,” Collins said. “The government has put forth what seems at first blush to be a very polished presentation, but it’s incomplete. It’s misleading. And on the most important points, it’s false.”
Collins addressed jurors after prosecutors’ extraordinarily lengthy closing argument, which wrapped up Friday morning after more than 10 hours over three days. Collins’ argument is expected to stretch into Monday, after which arguments will begin for Madigan’s co-defendant, longtime confidant Michael McClain.
In wrapping up her argument Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur called former House Speaker Michael Madigan “the man calling the shots,” a supremely powerful politician who for years used his roles as an elected official, leader of the state Democratic Party, and private lawyer to advance a criminal enterprise focused on private gain.
MacArthur told the jury Madigan and McClain worked in concert, “used and abused their positions” to “maintain Madigan’s power and acquire profit for his personal gain.”
“For Madigan and McClain, the corrupt way was the way it was, the way it continued to be,” MacArthur said. “But that is not the way the law says it can be.”
Madigan, 82, a Southwest Side Democrat, and McClain, 77, a longtime lobbyist from downstate Quincy, are charged in a 23-count indictment alleging that Madigan’s vaunted state and political operations were run like a criminal enterprise to increase his power and enrich himself and his associates.
In addition to alleging the plans to pressure developers, the indictment accuses Madigan and McClain of long-running bribery schemes involving ComEd and AT&T Illinois.
The trial, which began Oct. 8 and is finally inching toward a conclusion, represents the apex of a lengthy federal corruption investigation that has already resulted in convictions of several other Madigan-adjacent figures over the past few years. Madigan, however, is inarguably the biggest target.
Collins is expected to wrap up his closing argument on Monday, followed by McClain’s attorney and a rebuttal from prosecutors. Jurors likely will not start deliberating until Wednesday at the earliest.
MacArthur on Friday focused her argument on the top count in the indictment, the racketeering conspiracy. Using a slide titled “The Enterprise,” she said it consisted of two people, Madigan and McClain, and three entities: The Office of the Speaker, the 13th Ward Democratic Organization, and Madigan & Getzendanner.
Later, McArthur showed another slide that put Madigan at the top of the enterprise, calling him “the man in charge. The man calling the shots.”
The enterprise, MacArthur said, involved Madigan and McClain “performing a whole spectrum of acts, some legal and a lot illegal.”
“We’re not saying that everything they did was corrupt.” she said. “The legal part of that involved people knocking on doors, trying to get their vote. The illegal part involved the bribes.”
The indictment focuses on three goals: Enhancing Madigan’s power, rewarding allies for loyalty, and generating income through illegal activities.
MacArthur said it was Madigan’s power over legislation that induced companies like ComEd to hire his associates, many as do-nothing consultants.
“The granting of this type of reward on his political workers encouraged and rewarded loyalty and it gave those workers compensation for little or no work,” she said.
Through it all, McClain was there acting as Madigan’s self-proclaimed “agent,” MacArthur said, briefing him on the progress of assignments and performing the dirty work that the speaker didn’t want to have to do himself.
MacArthur said Madigan’s testimony earlier this month that he only trusted McClain “sometimes” was misleading.
“You know from the evidence McClain was not the ‘sometimes’ person, he was the ‘always’ person when it came to the sensitive tasks, the hard calls, the ‘bad news’ calls that had to be made,” she said.
One of the best examples of McClain acting as Madigan’s agent was the situation with then-state Rep. Lou Lang, where the speaker enlisted his confidant to “lower the boom” and ask for his resignation amid the threat of sexual harassment allegations going public.
MacArthur asked jurors to consider the “extraordinary power” bestowed on McClain by the speaker.
“This shows you McClain was not freelancing here, he was not going rogue,” MacArthur said. “This was coordinated…Madigan had power, he could do what he wanted, and he used McClain to carry it out.”
MacArthur also told the jury to consider the “sense of entitlement” that Madigan and McClain had when it came to companies like ComEd being at their beck and call.
To illustrate her point, MacArthur played a wiretapped recording between McClain and the speaker’s son, Andrew Madigan, where McClain griped about a Peoples Gas executive complaining about having to make a political hire.
““They’re in a regulatory body, right?” McClain said as Andrew Madigan laughed. “And they’re offended if people ask for favors. Hello? Dumb sh–s.”
MacArthur said the “sense of entitlement” of Madigan and McClain “permeates this case,” where they see utilities like ComEd as “benefit fulfillment centers” who should give them what they want simply because they need legislation in Springfield.
MacArthur also played a call from May 16, 2018, that she says perfectly illustrates the enterprise in action. It started with the two strategizing over gaming legislation and whether Madigan should “lift the brick” on it, which MacArthur said was “perfectly legal.”
But then they shifted to ComEd, talking about pushback from the utility on putting Madigan’s recommendation, Juan Ochoa, on its board of directors, and how incoming CEO Joe Dominguez couldn’t be trusted.
Madigan said, there was a request from then-U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez to see him and he thought it might be about Ochoa. “Mike my recommendation is go forward with Ochoa,” Madigan said. “So if the only complaint about Ochoa is that he suffers from bankruptcy twice so did Harry Truman.”
“I’ve offered to go rogue and go see Chris Crane myself,” McClain says. Then they shift to AT&T’s small cell bill and the Chinatown land transfer.
“That’s still moving along,” McClain says about Chinatown. “Um, in fact, on my list today is to call Nancy Kimme to find out, uh, if she’s ever got the legal description language.”
MacArthur said the call encompasses all of the illegal racketeering acts going on at that time, which she had listed on a PowerPoint slide.
“One day, one call and all of those topics listed on the screen were covered,” she said.
Originally Published:
