Whenever someone assures you that another person you’re both dealing with “understands” the “quid pro quo,” you’d be wise to run away as fast as you can and never look back.
But that’s exactly how then-Ald. Daniel Solis assured then-House Speaker Michael Madigan in late June of 2017 that their mark — the developers of a West Loop apartment complex — would eventually be convinced to retain Madigan’s property tax appeals law firm.
Solis chaired the powerful Zoning Committee, so the developers had to come through him, and Solis said they would understand the game: The developers hire Madigan’s law firm and their zoning changes would be approved.
“I think they understand how this works,” Solis told Madigan. “The quid pro quo.”
Solis admitted on the stand during Madigan’s corruption trial that what he said to Madigan was “dumb.”
Madigan didn’t know that the federal government was recording all his conversations with Solis. So, what was dumb about what Solis said is that Madigan might’ve immediately cut all ties to Solis, and Solis’ federal handlers would’ve been furious that he let the target get away.
Turns out, the real dummy was Madigan.
Madigan didn’t walk away. Instead, he kept going back to Solis, only gently admonishing him weeks later by telling Solis not to say the quiet part out loud and instructing him in the polite way of conducting business.
And then a few months later, while talking about another real estate deal, Solis asked whether the West Loop developers had signed on with Madigan’s firm. Madigan didn’t say, but appeared to give Solis the go-ahead to process their zoning request.
“You were contemplating processing something,” Madigan said. “You should go ahead and process that.”
The feds are also trying to prove that Madigan’s consigliere, longtime lobbyist and fellow defendant Mike McClain, wasn’t just freelancing without Madigan’s approval when it came to all the demands McClain was making of Commonwealth Edison.
The trial so far has given the feds big wins on that point. Madigan and Solis were in discussions about the state transferring a Chinatown parking lot to the City of Chicago so that it could be developed into a hotel, and Madigan could get the property tax business. So, he told Solis to reach out to McClain.
McClain would give the developer “some ideas about how to go about it.”
A couple of months later, Solis again brought up the Chinatown parcel to Madigan. “Let me get back into it and, and, um, see if there’s some way to find somebody that can talk to IDOT. That, that’s where the decision’s going to be made,” Madigan said.
“I’m trying to figure out a way to approach it,” Madigan later told Solis about the parcel. He appeared to be calculating how he could pass a bill to benefit his law firm without leaving any overt fingerprints.
Madigan eventually told Solis that one of the Chinatown developers would soon be receiving a call from McClain.
The effort to transfer the property extended into the spring of 2018 for several reasons, most importantly opposition from local legislators.
In March of 2018, Madigan told Solis that maybe McClain should talk to the senator who was putting a brick on the land transfer, and then explained to Solis at length how this particular legislation could shorten the time it would take to transfer the property to the city.
From there, jurors heard recordings about the intricacies of passing the bill, including who was blocking it. McClain is heard on a recording briefing Madigan about which legislators were opposing the bill and about how the then-secretary of transportation was “getting squeamish” about it.
Also in March, Solis told Madigan that if Madigan could “take care of that [Chinatown] matter in May,” during the end of spring session, “I’m confident they’ll appreciate it and … sign you up on after May.” Madigan didn’t run away then, either.
But the bill eventually died and a possible payday was missed.
On May 28, 2018, a few days before the scheduled end of spring session when there was still hope the bill would advance, McClain called a member of Madigan’s House staff to tell them about the property tax transfer bill, “that deals with a developer of [Madigan’s].” McClain told the staffer: “He wants to make sure he votes ‘present.’”
In other words, if the feds didn’t have Madigan, McClain and Solis on numerous recordings, Madigan could’ve officially covered his rear by voting “present” on a bill that would’ve potentially padded his pockets and that he’d allegedly been actively pushing behind the scenes for months on end.
- Lincoln Lad - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 8:25 am:
Thanks Rich for writing this. You’re hitting key and clear points, in a way all can understand. I hope the prosecutors tighten their case and do the same to not confuse the matters in front of the jury.
- Really? - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 8:36 am:
Fascinating the “Madigan was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers” schtick is eerily silent.
Two bit crooks is more accurate. Cheats who shook down many, not just those who are implicated here.
Honest, decent folks find this kind of “governance” despicable.
- TNR - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 9:09 am:
Madigan’s financial self-dealing on the Chinatown property smells a thousand times worse to me than any of the ComEd and AT&T sausage making. The proposed “present” vote speaks volumes about what Madigan was up to.
- Gravitas - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 9:31 am:
There’s a definite Dan Rostenkowski type vibe about Mike Madigan’s political corruption. The excuses sound like “honest graft” and “because we always did it this way.”
Madigan had opportunities to steer clear or walk away from Solis, but failed to do so several times.
- Anyone Remember - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 9:37 am:
===Honest, decent folks find this kind of “governance” despicable.===
Yes … however … with the SCOTUS worldview of McDonnell vs. United States, it is difficult to call it “illegal” and be consistent … . There is no “aha Perry Mason” picture here. Lots of things that should be illegal, but with McDonnell?
- Donnie Elgin - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 9:42 am:
= definite Dan Rostenkowski type vibe about Mike Madigan’s political corruption=
Rosty was a piker compared to MJM. Laundering Post Office money via stamps and vouchers is small fry. Look at the multiple complicated fraud schemes in which MJM failed to act in good faith. He clearly took “bribes before the fact” and abandoned the public trust to enrich himself.
- Gravitas - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 10:02 am:
A big difference is that Madigan attended law school and was licensed to practice. Rostenkowski was not a lawyer.
Solis used terms that would have caused ethical lawyers to back off and decline participation, but Madigan’s venality got the best of him.
- low level - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 10:17 am:
==Turns out, the real dummy was Madigan.==
Ouch. Well, it certainly makes one rethink the Velvet Hammer moniker in any event…
- Alton Sinkhole - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 10:54 am:
Rich this is seriously one of the best, most succinct recaps I’ve read on the trial thus far. I think a lot of the coverage has been a bit too inside baseball. For folks who are new to the state, or maybe are just entering the workforce or government in the post-Madigan era, this is important stuff to know.
Kudos.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:04 am:
I mean, that’s how *I* would have heard it.
– MrJM
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:15 am:
=== There is no “aha Perry Mason” picture here===
You must not have read the column because it’s full of them.
- Dannie - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:15 am:
We have all known for decades that Madigan is corrupt. I have stopped identifying as a Democrat because the party caucuses went along with his corruption. I consider myself an old school clean government progressive, but can’t find a political home in Illinois. The state representative for my district hired as a staffer a woman who has apparently defrauded the government of several million dollars in grants she received. Pritzker has made modest improvements on providing good government but there is much to do.
- Back to the Future - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:19 am:
Really good read.
- Give Us Barabbas - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:24 am:
I’m thinking Madigan got old and became sloppy and overconfident. Certainly his leg-men did.
- Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:35 am:
So, the evil mastermind who, for decades, had his tentacles into every aspect of Illinois government, from every bill that was called and passed to getting his daughter elected governor, was, at the end, another street hustler who really couldn’t help himself.
…and yet he still stymied numerous governors and an entire political party.
- Donnie Elgin - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:35 am:
=I’m thinking Madigan got old and became sloppy and overconfident=
Agreed, this scope and level of corruption took cultivating for decades. An age-old story of a strong-man leader who gets overconfident and stays too long.
- TNR - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:51 am:
== A big difference is that Madigan attended law school and was licensed to practice. ==
This is a good point. A legislator who practices law on the side has more opportunities for “honest graft” than just about any other profession, particularly if they are the leader of a chamber. Madigan and Burke’s trials show how easily political influence can be leveraged for a tax appeal practice — something that’s occurred in Cook County for decades. The same goes for work comp and municipality law practices.
It’s a good argument for a full time legislature, or at least full time leadership. Pay the Speaker the same as the governor and bar outside employment.
- Southie Sam - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:59 am:
=== =I’m thinking Madigan got old and became sloppy and overconfident=
Agreed, this scope and level of corruption took cultivating for decades. An age-old story of a strong-man leader who gets overconfident and stays too long. ===
Agreed. Also, kinda pathetic that after decades of so carefully and artfully building such a vast base of power that his single-minded pursuit of some legal fees from a Chinatown developer might be his undoing.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:12 pm:
===I’m thinking Madigan got old and became sloppy===
Or he was always this way and just got caught.
Either way, I don’t see it as him being old. I see it as someone acting like a wizened street hustler.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:31 pm:
===Madigan got old===
That sounds too much like an excuse. He is not some guy muttering aloud on the subway. He is wholly accountable for his misdeeds.
- low level - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:32 pm:
==the party caucuses went along with his corruption==
When evidence was brought forward in the ComEd defered prosecution agreement, enough Dems said they would not vote for him for speaker again during 2020-early 2021 that he was not retained as speaker. OW and other commentators refered to them as “The 19” which represented the growing list of members who publicly said they would not support him for another term. Before then, there was much speculation about wrongdoing but nothing concrete. When it became clear, the HDem caucus acted.
You may think they did not act soon enough but its a stretch to say they “went along” with it.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:36 pm:
===When evidence was brought forward in the ComEd defered prosecution agreement, enough Dems said they would not vote for him for speaker again during 2020-early 2021 that he was not retained as speaker.===
Correct.
Plus, the G had enough secretly gathered material on MJM to make a case just with this Chinatown bill in 2018, months before he was reelected Speaker. They could’ve stepped in, but did not.
- Anyone Remember - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:51 pm:
===You must not have read the column because it’s full of them.===
Was wearing McDonnell colored glasses. Don’t think Madigan is “innocent.” Rather, forlornly want McDonnell’s conviction for taking $177,000 in gifts and loans (including a Rolex) reinstated.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 1:18 pm:
===McDonnell colored glasses===
It’s not a gratuity if the bribe is painstakingly worked out in advance.
- Politics as usual - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 2:31 pm:
“But the bill eventually died and a possible payday was missed.”
Too much “alleged” and “possible payday” but no quid changing hands in a McDonnell world for this to be Perry Masonish. Defense gets to go now.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 2:36 pm:
=== in a McDonnell world===
McDonnell was a payment after the fact. There was, in my recollection, no distinct plan laid out during alleged criminal plotting for recompense like there was here.
- Excitable Boy - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 4:26 pm:
- Or he was always this way and just got caught. -
Agreed. The only thing that changed was Solis wearing a wire.