Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan enters the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
By Jon Seidel, Tina Sfondeles, Dave McKinney | WBEZ, Matthew Hendrickson
A federal jury has found former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan guilty of bribery conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud in a partial verdict announced Wednesday morning.
The news came nearly 65 hours into jurors’ deliberations in the case against Madigan, who broke records as the longest-serving state House leader in the nation before a widening federal corruption probe forced him from office in 2021.
The panel of eight women and four men listened to more than 60 witnesses and a full week of closing arguments before they began deliberating on the afternoon of Jan. 29. Jurors told the judge in a note Wednesday morning that they had reached a unanimous decision on 17 counts, but were unlikely to be able to agree on another 12.
“We have come to a unanimous decision on 17 counts,” the jurors told U.S. District Judge John Blakey. “We have tried our very best to come to a unanimous decision on the remaining 12 counts and have not been able to do so. It is our belief that this impasse will not be overcome.”
Madigan’s attorney Dan Collins suggested accepting the verdict on the 17 and moving for mistrial on the 12 other counts. Michael McClain’s attorney Patrick Cotter had a similar response.
Prosecutors said they were “amenable to taking a partial verdict.” Assistant U.S. Atty. Amarjeet Bhachu told the judge “the choice is totally” the jurors’ as to whether to return a partial verdict.
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