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Feds detail case against Madigan, McClain and say they plan to call Solis to the witness stand

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Illinois

* Today’s federal filings are here and here. That second one is pretty extensive and worth a look. From the Sun-Times…

Danny Solis’ days on the federal witness stand may not be over.

Months after declining to call the notorious FBI mole to testify in the trial of ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke, prosecutors disclosed Monday that they intend to summon Solis to the stand in the trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, set for October.

That notice appears to short-circuit the kind of will-he/won’t-he drama that surrounded Solis’ role in Burke’s trial last fall. Solis was ultimately called to the stand by Burke’s defense attorneys, who questioned him for about three hours in December.

This time around, prosecutors say Solis will testify about allegations that Madigan agreed to help with the transfer of a property in Chinatown from the state to the city in exchange for business for Madigan’s private law firm, as well as an alleged scheme to help Solis land a spot on a state board.

* Tribune…

According to the new document in the Madigan case, which was filed several days after the original deadline due to technical issues at the U.S. attorney’s office, Solis will provide “devastating” testimony that adds context to many of Madigan’s responses on the secret recordings and allegedly shows how he was using Solis to get introductions to big-time developers, including the New York-based firm in charge of the Post Office project.

“Solis is expected to testify that Madigan continued to ask Solis during his cooperation to make introductions to developers so that Madigan could secure their tax business for his law firm,” prosecutors wrote. […]

In the filing Monday, prosecutors said they will prove that the purposes of Madigan’s criminal enterprise included enhancing his own political power and financial well-being, financially rewarding Madigan’s political allies, political workers, and associates for their loyalty, and generating “income for members and associates of the enterprise through illegal activities.”

“Madigan was the leader of the enterprise, and he used his various positions to oversee, direct, and guide certain of the enterprise’s illegal activities,” prosecutors said.

* From the feds…

AT&T-Related Conduct.

At the same time Madigan and McClain were arranging for and maintaining stream of benefits directed to Madigan and his associates from ComEd, Madigan and McClain also plotted to solicit bribes from Illinois Bell Telephone Company, doing business as “AT&T Illinois.” AT&T Illinois (generally referred to herein simply as “AT&T”) was an Illinois company that provided regulated wireline and other communications services in Illinois.

Between February 2017 and January 2018, Madigan, McClain, the president of AT&T, Paul La Schiazza, and others discussed below agreed to corruptly confer benefits on Madigan, intending to corruptly influence and reward Madigan in connection with efforts to pass legislation favorable to AT&T.

The bribes AT&T paid to Madigan were comprised of payments totaling $22,500 made indirectly by AT&T to a former legislator, Individual FR-1, for the last nine months of 2017. Individual FR-1 did no work in return for these payments. The coconspirators concealed the nature of the payments to Individual FR-1 by paying Individual FR-1 indirectly through Intermediary 4 (one of AT&T’s lobbyists) and by causing the creation of a false contract and other false internal records to disguise the true nature of the payments.

In return for those payments, Madigan and McClain helped AT&T to pass valuable legislation, including AT&T’s carrier of last resort (or “COLR”) legislation, which was a prerequisite for AT&T to terminate its costly obligation to provide landline telephone services to all Illinois residents that requested such services.

* As an aside, the unions had been hotly opposed to AT&T’s COLR legislation, which is a prime reason why Madigan would not advance the bill. But then after countless machinations the COLR language was attached to a proposal that raised money to fund local 9-1-1 services and Gov. Rauner vetoed it…

The majority in the General Assembly waited until the last moment to send this 9-1-1 service reauthorization bill to my desk. Unfortunately, those lawmakers also inserted a major tax hike into this bill, a tax that’s both excessive and unwarranted, and that I strongly oppose. The tax hike is large for the people of Illinois, but it’s particularly massive for the people of Chicago. Chicago 9-1-1 fees are already the highest in America. This extreme increase is unfair and indefensible. But the majority in the General Assembly is using the threat of cancellation of 9-1-1 services on Saturday as leverage to force this tax hike through over my opposition.

This mean-spirited strategy has been employed by the majority repeatedly over the years, most prominently in the current budget impasse: holding innocent people, our most vulnerable residents and essential services hostage as leverage to force excessive, unwarranted tax hikes onto the people of Illinois. This practice must stop.

The veto override motions passed both chambers overwhelmingly in late June and early July of 2017 (receiving more House “Yes” votes than the bill itself). The overrides were, at the time, seen as a test of whether Republicans would stick with Democrats to override a Rauner tax hike veto and end the long stalemate. Partially because of that test vote, the impasse was finally broken less than a week later.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Mar 18, 24 @ 2:08 pm

Comments

This is a great thread….it looks to me like the Feds have clearly spelled out a conspiracy. It seems fairly easy to follow….which I would think is dangerous for the Defense.

Comment by Ryder Monday, Mar 18, 24 @ 4:18 pm
Agreed Ryder. Lots of bad news for the defense in that proffer. I was trying to think of how the defense would respond as I was reading it, and it looks pretty damning to my untrained eyes, especially the Chinatown stuff.

Can they discredit Solis? They will certainly try, but the feds have a lot of evidence on this, including the voices of McClain and Madigan.

It’s going to take a lot to overcome the witness testimony and evidence in this case, but I realize the proffer is only the prosecution’s side of things.

Also, I thought the part about Governor-elect Pritzker’s meetings with Madigan were a fascinating window into how MJM played the game so methodically. I do recall hearing a lot of gripes from Madigan allies about the Governor and his team not bowing sufficiently to Madigan on hiring. Pritzker and his team look pretty good on this so far.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Mar 18, 24 @ 4:29 pm