* We covered most of this yesterday and before and during the trial, but let’s do a roundup. Jon Seidel at the Sun-Times…
Tim Mapes once seemed free and clear, even as the FBI drew its net around his former boss and his longtime colleagues in Springfield.
Months after the indictment of four people with ties to onetime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, Mapes found himself sitting before a federal grand jury. He had an immunity order, meaning he couldn’t be prosecuted for what he said — as long as he told the truth.
But Mapes decided to lie that day in March 2021.
That’s what a jury decided Thursday after five hours of deliberations at the end of a trial that lasted three weeks featuring 18 witnesses and several FBI wiretap recordings. In fact, they said Mapes lied a lot: on seven specific occasions, regarding 14 different topics.
Mapes is now a convicted liar. His word on anything can no longer be trusted in any court, including the court of public opinion. Even so, a commenter asked this yesterday…
Now the question becomes who will Mapes roll on to reduce his sentence? Is he finally at a point where he will reveal what he knows? Certainly does not seem like McClain has flipped but who knows?
My reply…
First, he’s been convicted of perjury. He’d be a lousy witness even without his own personality, um, issues. Second, unless he knows something the government doesn’t after months of FBI wiretaps, email and document subpoenas, etc. he’s got nothing much to give. Third, even if he did have something, the ComEd Four trial strongly indicates that Madigan is a cooked goose. They don’t need him. Never did, actually.
Also, if the feds truly needed Mapes to make their case against Madigan and McClain they’d have pressed him much harder during the grand jury on far more topics. Also too, Mapes’ cooperation could actually complicate their case because the defense lawyers would make mincemeat out of him on the stand (although I’d almost pay to see it).
* Mapes wasn’t ever cooperative, as Hannah Meisel points out in her story…
In a statement late Thursday afternoon, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Morris Pasqual said Mapes’ conviction “should stand as a clear message to witnesses” who are called to appear in front of a grand jury. […]
About six weeks before his grand jury testimony, Mapes sat for an FBI interview in February 2021. During the trial, prosecutors hinted at the fact that Mapes ended the interview after agents broached the subject of Madigan and his close confidant Mike McClain. The FBI was interested in whether McClain, a longtime influential lobbyist in Springfield with whom Mapes also shared a friendship, acted as an “agent” of Madigan.
Shortly after Mapes’ FBI interview, he was subpoenaed for testimony in front of the grand jury, but roughly 10 days later, asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. In response, prosecutors requested the court put Mapes under an immunity order, meaning that in exchange for his truthful testimony, Mapes couldn’t be charged in the investigation.
However, the immunity order also meant that if Mapes lied while under oath, he could be charged. It was under those circumstances that Mapes entered the grand jury room in late March of 2021, where during those two hours of testimony, he was reminded three times of the stakes of lying under oath.
The time to flip was February of 2021, well before the feds asked a judge to impose an immunity order on him. The train left the station and he wasn’t on it. Others quickly hopped aboard, and they’ll be home with their families while Mapes is serving whatever time he gets.
* Jason Meisner and Ray Long at the Tribune…
Mapes’ quick-and-quiet exit stood in high contrast to his heyday as Madigan’s longtime chief of staff and executive director of the state Democratic Party, when, as the speaker’s premier gatekeeper, he strode the halls of power with an almost autocratic style.
He also served as the clerk of the House, where he was known as a details-driven micromanager adept at keeping the legislative trains running.
Madigan unceremoniously dumped Mapes from all three positions in June 2018 after a staffer accused him of sexual harassment in a year in which the #MeToo movement cost the careers of several Madigan allies.
The jury’s verdict marked the conclusion of a nearly three-week criminal case that centered on relatively straightforward charges yet delved deeply into the behind-the-scenes political intrigue of the scandals that rocked Madigan’s office and ended his decadeslong grip on power.
* Todd Feurer and Suzanne Le Mignot at CBS 2…
“For whatever reason in his heart and his mind, (Mapes) chose loyalty over the truth,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said during closing arguments Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors said Mapes had a mantra: “protect the boss,” and he lied repeatedly to do that. Mapes’ defense said “protect the boss” meant protecting Madigan from political fallout, and nothing else.
As Speaker Madigan’s top aide for more than 25 years, the prosecution said Mapes lied about the nature of the long-term relationship between Madigan and his longtime confidant Michael McClain, arguing Mapes knew McClain, a lobbyist and close Madigan friend, did work for the former speaker.
Federal prosecutors said when called to testify before a grand jury investigating the ComEd case, Mapes lied “to protect the boss Mike Madigan and lied to protect his friend, Mike McClain.”
…Adding… True…
* Isabel rounded up some more…
