* AP…

Once lauded as thelongest-serving legislative leader in American history, Michael Madigan will enter a federal courtroom this week on charges he used his vast influence to run a “criminal enterprise” to amass even more wealth and power.

The former Illinois House speaker is charged in a multimillion-dollar racketeering and bribery scheme that included the state’s largest utility, ComEd. […]

[S]tarting Tuesday, as potential jurors first report to court, the spotlight turns to the Chicago Democrat who was once considered the most powerful force in Illinois politics. […]

Madigan, speaker for more than three decades, is charged in a 23-count indictment with racketeering conspiracy, using interstate facilities in aid of bribery, wire fraud and attempted extortion.

* Sun-Times…

The panel, set to be chosen over four days, could hear from as many as 50 witnesses over 10 weeks. But chief among them will be Danny Solis, the veteran City Council member who prosecutors have called one of Chicago’s “most significant cooperators in the last several decades.” Solis famously turned on Madigan and other powerful politicians in 2016 by wearing an FBI wire to avoid prison.

The Chicago Sun-Times exposed Solis after it obtained an erroneously unsealed affidavit in January 2019.

That revelation didn’t stop the feds’ blockbuster investigation from upending Chicago’s power structure. Roughly 20 people have faced federal charges in the years since. Nine of them were sentenced to prison, including ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke. […]

Madigan’s defense attorneys face a team of prosecutors who secured convictions against nearly every defendant they took to trial in 2023. The feds have struggled this year, though, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court in June limited their use of a key bribery law. Chicago’s last two federal corruption trials ended without convictions.

* Tribune…

Chicago Ald. Daniel Solis was a year into his stunning turn as an FBI mole when he allegedly called up the most powerful politician in Illinois and floated three little words that are virtually taboo in the state’s political lexicon.

Quid pro quo.

With the feds listening in, Solis told then-House Speaker Michael Madigan, their prime investigative target, that the developers of a West Loop apartment tower understood that in order to get approvals done in City Hall they had to hire Madigan’s private law firm to do their property tax appeals, according to federal prosecutors.

“I think they understand they’ve got some issues that they still have to deal with me in terms of zoning,” Solis, then the head of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, told Madigan on the June 23, 2017, call, according to prosecutors. “And I think they understand how this works, you know, the quid pro quo, the quid pro quo.”

Madigan allegedly responded, “OK.”

The recording cuts to the heart of one of the key issues in Madigan’s highly anticipated racketeering trial, which gets underway this week at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse: Did Madigan know ahead of time that private benefits for himself or his friends were being exchanged for official acts?

* WTTW…

The government’s evidence in the alleged ComEd scheme was already presented in large part during the 2023 trial of the so-called “ComEd Four” — McClain and three other utility officials — who were convicted of conspiring to bribe Madigan in order to curry his favor on Springfield legislation that would benefit the company.

In that alleged scheme, Madigan and McClain are accused of arranging subcontractor jobs for several of the former speaker’s associates — including 13th Ward precinct captains Ray Nice and Ed Moody, and former Chicago Alds. Frank Olivo and Michael Zalewski — with the utility giant, which paid out more than $1 million to those individuals even as they did little or no work.

Moody previously testified at the “ComEd Four” trial that although he did receive a ComEd paycheck, he did minimal work for the company and believed he was actually being paid to continue working as a political operative on Madigan-connected campaigns.

“‘(McClain) said, ‘This was a hell of a plum and that I owed the speaker big,’” Moody testified during that trial.

* More…

* Tribune | After storied time as the ‘Velvet Hammer,’ Michael Madigan to face a jury: Jury selection begins Tuesday before U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey, with opening statements a week later, and the high-profile spectacle expected to roll deep into December. Madigan and his co-defendant, Michael McClain, a longtime confidant, former lawmaker and retired contract lobbyist for ComEd and other top companies, have pleaded not guilty.

* Center Square | Lawmakers recall former Illinois House speaker’s tactics ahead of corruption trial: [Rep. Kelly Cassidy] said she learned about Madigan’s ways earlier when the speaker’s office had some of her allies question her about betraying her values and working for then-Governor Bruce Rauner’s turnaround agenda. “During the Rauner years, there was a pretty amazing day where, as I moved through the Capitol, I was getting these really weird questions from traditional allies: a union member asking me if I was reconsidering my position on pensions, the trial lawyers asking me if I had rethought my position on workers comp, for example,” Cassidy recalled.

* Tribune | Breaking down the charges in the Michael Madigan indictment: Unofficially, it’s one of the biggest public corruption cases ever brought in Illinois, even in a state with a well-chronicled track record for blockbuster political trials. Madigan, 82, the former speaker of the Illinois House and head of the state Democratic Party, and his longtime confidant, ex-lobbyist Michael McClain, 77, are charged in a 117-page, 23-count superseding indictment filed in October 2022 with racketeering conspiracy and a host of other crimes.

* Sun-Times | Mike Madigan among cast of powerful characters ensnared in corruption cases playing out in Chicago: Most of them were convicted, some went to prison. But all were caught up in the FBI’s decade-long pursuit of Illinois’ former House speaker. Here’s a look at the individuals and businesses caught in the crossfire ahead of Madigan’s trial.