Madigan co-defendant’s lawyer tells jury legal lobbying is not bribery, says feds view ‘just wrong’

A lawyer for ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan’s longtime confidant told a federal jury Tuesday that the allegations of bribery and corruption against the pair attempt to criminalize legal lobbying and relationship building at the center of the state’s politics.

“The evidence will show Mike McClain was a lobbyist, and like all lobbyists, (he) understood if you want to get access to a politician you need to develop a relationship of trust,” defense attorney John Mitchell told the jury in his opening statement.

Mitchell likened lobbying to sales, saying it’s all about the “hope” of getting a meeting, having that relationship. Bribery, he said, is an exchange, an envelope of cash for a vote.

“A good lobbyist builds good positive relationships with elected officials,” Mitchell said. “If you don’t have access to a politician, you have no hope of convincing them.”

He said McClain did “perfectly 100% legal favors for Mike Madigan” for the purpose of “building trust and maintaining and increasing access to Mike Madigan.”

The government’s view of the evidence “is just wrong,” Mitchell told jurors.

“They were so focused on Mike Madigan that they missed it,” he said. “He did not act with an attempt to bribe Mike Madigan or help him obtain bribes…He is 100% innocent.”

Madigan, 82, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise, scheming with utility giants ComEd and AT&T to put his cronies on contracts requiring little or no work and using his public position to drum up business for his private law firm.

Both Madigan and McClain, 77, a former ComEd lobbyist, have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.

Prosecutors, not surprisingly, have painted a much different picture, telling the jury in their opening statement Monday that Madigan ruthlessly used his perch at the very top of state politics to betray the public trust, increase his power, enrich his friends and line his own pockets.

“Madigan abused his power and used the organization he led to engage in a pattern of corrupt conduct over and over and over again,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker told jurors.

Alongside Madigan, Streicker said, was McClain, his longtime friend and political ally, who “shielded Madigan, disguising Madigan’s involvement in corrupt activity.”

“Together the defendants engaged in a campaign of bribery,” she said. “A campaign of bribery through which they seized opportunities to leverage Madigan’s immense power in Illinois government to seek and accept bribes from people who needed something from the government. … This racket went on for years.”

At the core of the prosecution evidence are hundreds of wiretapped recordings of McClain’s phone as well as undercover videos made by secret cooperators, such as former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez and then-Ald. Daniel Solis.

Mitchell told the jury that despite all the secret recordings, there is no evidence that ComEd ever agreed to give Madigan anything in exchange for his help passing any legislation — which would cross the line from legal favors to bribery.

“You would think if there was an exchange there would be something on there, something hinting of an exchange,” Mitchell said.

Madigan’s attorneys, meanwhile, described the Democratic stalwart as a soft-spoken, nonconfrontational Southwest Side guy trying to advance his party’s blue-collar agenda.

Decrying the government’s cooperating witnesses as liars with an “axe to grind” who were operating without the speaker’s knowledge or authorization, attorney Tom Breen urged jurors to focus on what Madigan’s intentions were, “not what somebody else says” on some 200 wiretapped audio and video recordings that will dominate the 11-week trial.

What they’ll find, Breen said, is a man trying to provide jobs and opportunities for his constituents following in the footsteps of his father, a 13th Ward superintendent.

“What you will see is that his intention, like his daddy taught him, was to protect the Democratic agenda. The working stiff,” Breen said. He said that while others may have been scheming behind Madigan’s back, “He doesn’t act that way.”

“He has never made a demand on anybody,” Breen said, at one point slapping the lectern for effect. “If someone says he did, that’s bull. That’s just bull.”

The jury of eight women and four men is expected to start hearing evidence after Mitchell’s opening statement.

Among the government’s first witnesses are former state legislators Carol Sente and Scott Drury, who are expected to give the jury an overview of how the General Assembly in Springfield works and why Madigan wielded so much power and influence over legislation.

Also on the witness list for Tuesday is former state Rep. Lou Lang, a then-Madigan ally who was forced to step down in 2018 by Madigan, allegedly with McClain’s help, after word had begun circulating that a woman was threatening to go public with an allegation of sexual harassment.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com