Appeals court upholds former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's corruption conviction
A federal appeals court panel has upheld former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's conviction on bribery and other corruption charges, ruling that prosecutors presented clear evidence he traded his support for legislation benefiting ComEd for lucrative jobs for his political allies.
"Michael Madigan spent nearly a decade leveraging his power as one of the highest-ranking public officials in Illinois in exchange for over $3 million of financial benefits for his close political allies. The linkage was clear and far from fleeting," U.S. District Judge Michael Scudder Jr. wrote in a ruling by a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Madigan's attorneys had argued that federal prosecutors' core legal theory - that Madigan and ComEd were engaged in a years-long "quid pro quo" bribery scheme was fundamentally flawed.
"The alleged 'quo' ... is far too vague," attorney Amy Saharia told the appellate judges at a hearing earlier this month.
Saharia argued that, despite hundreds of hours of wiretapped phone calls, hundreds of other pieces of evidence, and testimony from dozens of witnesses, prosecutors never produced evidence of a quid pro quo agreement.
But on Monday, Scudder and Judges Frank Easterbrook and Nancy Maldonado made it clear they believe prosecutors proved that Madigan arranged for ComEd to provide jobs to his political allies in exchange for his political support.
"He repeatedly facilitated changes to state law impacting countless energy consumers in northern Illinois, all because ComEd funneled money to the right people. Madigan insists that this was run-of-the-mill politics. But a jury of twelve Illinois residents saw the evidence differently. So do we," Scudder wrote.
Federal prosecutors had told the jury repeatedly during Madigan's four-month trial that ended last year that Madigan enjoyed a "stream of benefits" from ComEd, namely the hiring of the speaker's political allies, in exchange for his "official action" on ComEd's behalf in Springfield.
In February 2025, a jury convicted Madigan 10 counts, including bribery conspiracy and wire fraud. The jury acquitted him of seven other charges, while deadlocking on six other counts. Madigan is serving a 7 ½ year sentence at a federal prison in West Virginia.
He was accused of agreeing to perform "official action" on behalf of ComEd in exchange for bribes in the form of business for his property tax appeals firm and jobs for political allies, including former Ald. Michael Zalewski, former Cook County Recorder of Deeds Edward Moody, former Illinois state Rep. Edward Acevedo, and longtime Madigan campaign worker Raymond Nice.
ComEd also was accused of paying $1.8 million to the law firm of longtime Madigan associate Victor Reyes to curry favor with the speaker.
He also was accused of a scheme to help get then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis appointed to a state board in exchange for introductions to high-powered real estate developers.
Little did Madigan know that Solis was an FBI informant. As laid out in trial, Madigan never ended up recommending Solis to newly elected Gov. JB Pritzker, but federal prosecutors argued that the relationship between the two men was an illustration of Madigan's "corrupt intent" to get business for himself.