Last week began with opening statements in the racketeering conspiracy trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, whose attorneys insisted that no one had the right to speak for the speaker — that Madigan was “ignorant” of what people said behind his back.
But it ended with prosecutors playing a crush of about 30 recordings that suggest otherwise: That Madigan’s longtime friend Michael McClain went straight from retiring as a lobbyist in late 2016 to doing “assignments” for Madigan — what a prosecutor called his “dirty work.”
“This is no longer me talking,” McClain told a veteran lawmaker in one such recording from 2018. “I’m an agent.” […]
The fireworks came as prosecutors began to drill into core pillars of the case against Madigan and McClain — the alleged racketeering enterprise and the bribery scheme at ComEd.
Much of the evidence related to ComEd was aired at a separate trial last year. It ended with the convictions of McClain and three others. Still, the introduction of secret FBI recordings, and the key testimony from former state Rep. Lou Lang, livened things up in the 12th floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge John Blakey as the first week of testimony came to a close.
The evidence supported prosecutors’ claim that Madigan led a criminal enterprise designed to enhance his political power and enrich his allies, with McClain serving as his agent. It also undermined the argument from Madigan attorney Tom Breen in opening statements that Madigan was “completely ignorant of what people are saying behind his back.”
“They don’t have the authority to speak that way for Michael Madigan,” Breen said.
Lang, who served more than 30 years in the Illinois House of Representatives, kicked things off by taking the witness stand Thursday morning. Late in 2018, someone had threatened to come forward with an allegation against Lang after Springfield had already endured months of #MeToo scandals, including an earlier one involving Lang.
In one call heard by jurors Thursday, Madigan told McClain that “I think the guy’s gonna be a continuing problem.” In another, McClain bluntly asked, “When do you want me to call Lang and just lower the boom?”
“Sooner rather than later,” Madigan tells him.
Lang looked straight ahead on the witness stand Thursday as prosecutors played the Nov. 8, 2018, call that came next. In it, McClain told Lang it was time to resign from the General Assembly. McClain said, “This is no longer me talking. I’m an agent, somebody that cares deeply about ya, who thinks that you really oughta move on.”
“I understood at that time that [McClain] was a messenger for the speaker,” Lang testified.
Read the rest of the Chicago Sun-Times coverage of the Madigan Trial.