Former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s lawyer will proceed his last presentation to the jury on Monday attacking allegations of a ComEd bribery scheme and the FBI mole on the middle of the landmark case: former Ald. Daniele Solis.
Attorney Dan Collins started his closing argument Friday and foreshadowed what was to come back, calling Solis that “little crack within the windshield that simply will not go away and continues to unfold and unfold.”
Collins additionally scoffed at prosecutors’ characterization of Solis as a “strolling microphone,” noting that the then-Twenty fifth District councilman and head of the influential zoning board solely started cooperating after being confronted with proof of his personal felony wrongdoing, and was typically dramatized in his undercover dealings with Madigan.
“He’s not a strolling microphone. He’s an actor in a theater manufacturing and he will get course from the federal government,” Collins advised the jury Friday. “He’s not only a strolling microphone, he is a strolling crime wave.”
Collins advised the jury he would have far more to say about Solis when his closing arguments resume on Monday.
Madigan, 82, a Southwest Side Democrat, and his co-defendant, Michael McClain, 77, a longtime downstate lobbyist from Quincy, are charged in a 23-count indictment underneath the place Madigan’s vaunted state and political operations had been run as a felony enterprise to extend his energy and enrich himself and his associates.
In addition to alleged plans to strain builders to rent Madigan’s legislation agency, the indictment accuses Madigan and McClain of bribery schemes involving ComEd and AT&T Illinois.
The trial, which started Oct. 8 and is lastly nearing its conclusion, represents the fruits of an extended federal corruption investigation that has already led to the convictions of a number of different figures near Madigan in recent times. Madigan, nonetheless, is arguably the larger goal.
Collins started his speech to jurors after prosecutors’ terribly lengthy closing arguments, which ended Friday morning after greater than 10 hours over three days. This meant that Collins’ dialogue was lower quick after about 2 1/2 hours.
The subsequent continuing will probably be counsel for Madigan’s co-defendant, Michael McClain, adopted by a authorities rebuttal and, lastly, jury deliberations.
Toward the tip of her argument Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur known as Madigan “the choice maker,” an especially highly effective politician who for years has used his function as an elected official, chief of the state Democratic Party and personal lawyer to advance a felony enterprise centered on personal acquire.
MacArthur advised the jury that Madigan and McClain labored in live performance, “used and abused their positions” to “preserve Madigan’s energy and purchase income for his private acquire.”
“For Madigan and McClain, the corrupt means was what it was, the best way it continued to be,” MacArthur mentioned. “But that is not how the legislation says it may be.”
The protection throughout Madigan’s marathon public corruption trial sought to painting the longtime political heavyweight as a hard-working, humble Southwest Sider who at all times sought to assist individuals by means of his function on the prime of the nation’s political energy construction. ‘Illinois.
To bolster the regular-guy picture, Collins on Friday repeatedly referred to his shopper not as “the speaker,” not as “Mr. Madigan,” however as “Mike.”
“Government is dependent upon your cynicism, the cynicism we have now about our public officers,” Collins mentioned. “The authorities has made what at first look seems to be a really refined presentation, however it’s incomplete. It’s deceptive. And on crucial factors it’s false.”
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
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