- A judge has denied former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan s motion to remain free as the legal appeal process plays out for both his corruption conviction and prison sentence.
- Madigan is due to report to a yet-to-be-named federal prison in mid-October after his February convictions on 10 corruption charges, including bribery.
- The former Democratic power player has hired a well-known team of appellate attorneys to handle his appeal, while those convicted of bribing him are also preparing to argue their case to higher court.
The reporters and editors who worked on this story wrote this synopsis.
Chicago Former Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan’s legal arguments that he should be released from prison while he appeals his corruption convictions and seven-year term were rejected by a federal judge on Friday.
Madigan has not yet been assigned a facility by the federal Bureau of Prisons, but he is expected to report to prison on October 13. Although his complete arguments aren’t expected for a few more weeks, the former speaker, who served as the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history for 36 years in Springfield, has already started the appeal process.
In a 44-page ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge John Blakey, who oversaw Madigan’s drawn-out trial this past fall and winter and imposed Madigan’s extended jail sentence in June, stated that the former speaker’s entire motion is based on common and baseless objections.
He therefore holds onto a false hope, Blakey wrote.
A jury found Madigan guilty on 10 out of 23 charges of corruption, including wire fraud and bribery, in a split verdict in February. Madigan was found guilty on 10 counts, including those involving the electric utility Commonwealth Edison and his interactions with Danny Solis, a former Chicago alderman who is now an FBI mole. Solis introduced Madigan to influential real estate developers who could be clients for the speaker’s property tax appeals firm. The jury acquitted Madigan on seven counts and deadlocked on another six.
Read more: Split verdict punctuates ex-speaker’s fall as Madigan is found guilty of briberyFormer Speaker Madigan received a seven-year prison sentence for corruption and bribery.
According to Blakey, Madigan’s justifications for staying free throughout his appeal fall short of the high standard of posing a significant legal or factual issue.
A group of lawyers with years of expertise arguing at the U.S. Supreme Court was recently engaged by the former speaker. The term of bribery, which the high court considered last summer in a case that postponed the former speaker’s prosecution, is at the heart of Madigan’s legal approach.
Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and longtime Springfield lobbyist and Madigan associate Mike McClain are among those convicted of bribing Madigan and are preparing appeals on the same grounds.
For their roles in planning the bribery scam, Pramaggiore, McClain, and the other two members of the so-called ComEd Four were given prison sentences earlier this summer that ranged from one and a half to two years.
Read more: You favored lies and secrecy: A longtime ComEd lobbyist receives a one-year prison term for his involvement in the Madigan bribery plot; a former ComEd CEO receives a two-year sentence for his role in the bribery scheme directed at Madigan; and John Hooker, the first of the ComEd Four to be sentenced, receives a one-year jail sentence.
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