(The Center Square) – U.S. District Court Judge John Robert Blakey of the Northern District of Illinois is reviewing jury instructions ahead of closing arguments at the public corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in Chicago.
Blakey said last week that he would have over 100 pages of instructions for jurors. The jury waited at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse Wednesday morning while the judge and attorneys continued their review of instructions and prosecutors’ plans for closing statements.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia Schwartz and Diane MacArthur are expected to deliver at least six hours of closing arguments on behalf of the government. Defense attorneys for Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain are slated to follow with their closing presentations. On Thursday or Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu would then deliver the government’s final rebuttal before the case goes to the jury for deliberations.
Madigan and McClain are charged with 23 counts of bribery, racketeering and official misconduct in connection with a scheme prosecutors referred to as “The Madigan Enterprise.”
U.S. government attorneys allege that ComEd and AT&T Illinois gave out no-work or little-work jobs and contract work to those loyal to Madigan to get legislation passed that would benefit them in Springfield. McClain and three other ComEd executives and lobbyists were convicted in 2023 in a related trial, and ComEd itself agreed to pay $200 million in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors. AT&T agreed to pay $23 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors.
Madigan and McClain are also accused of using Madigan’s position of power to steer business to the former speaker’s private law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner.
Madigan served in the Illinois House for 50 years and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He also chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years.
McClain was a longtime lobbyist who previously served as a state representative in Illinois’ 48th district from 1973 to 1982.
