From State Rep. Dan Ugaste:
MADIGAN TRIAL
Prosecutors rest their case, former Madigan aide/ally says AT&T Illinois contract to Rep. Eddie Acevedo was “kind of a joke.”
After nine weeks of testimony, this week the prosecution team rested their case against former Speaker Michael J. Madigan and his close confidante, lobbyist Mike McClain.
They are accused of engaging in a pattern of “quid pro quo” dealmaking that constituted racketeering, wire fraud, and other federal offenses.
Evidence in the ongoing trial of these alleged deals, presented to the jury, includes wiretap tapes, gathered by federal search warrant.
The tapes feature the voices of the two defendants, Madigan and McClain, making the deals and pushing for political outcomes.
With the prosecution team resting its case, the trial turns to the Madigan and McClain defense teams to summon their witnesses.
Both defendants have hired experienced counsel who are expected to try to point out alleged ambiguities in cases presented by the federal prosecution.
The jury will have to weigh these defense assertions against the weight of prosecution testimony setting forth the extent of the dealmaking.
One of the closing items in the prosecution testimony was the assertion by a former insider that AT&T Illinois funneled cash to a key Madigan ally, and then tried to cover up this cash transfer through a pseudo-contractual agreement that the insider described as a “joke.”
The “joke” characterization came from former Madigan top aide Thomas Cullen, who had worked closely with Madigan and McClain.
Cullen had himself been a registered contract lobbyist for AT&T Illinois after moving on from Madigan’s staff. In this capacity,
Cullen developed high familiarity with the duties of an active AT&T Illinois contract lobbyist. In a typical agreement to perform contractual work, a real service is performed by the contractor in return for compensation.
In sharp contrast, Cullen testified as a former AT&T Illinois insider, when the company paid money to former Rep. Eddie Acevedo, no real services were expected or received.
Cullen’s testimony was an additional data point of evidence in favor of the prosecution team’s assertion that the relations between AT&T Illinois and the Madigan organization included payments of money by AT&T Illinois in return for friendly legislation.
Cullen also admitted on the stand that that he had been a ‘bag man’ and money-transfer agent to another former Madigan aide, political staffer Kevin Quinn.
In 2018, ‘Me Too’ allegations of sexual harassment were made against Quinn, who was then fired from his position on the Madigan team.
However, after this dismissal the Madigan team made $1,000-per-month under-the-table payments to Quinn for little to no work.
The prosecution team alleges that these were hush money payments made to Quinn to compensate him for keeping his mouth shut.
The overall secrecy of the Madigan inner circle eventually led federal prosecutors to work with a federal judge to obtain a warrant and place wiretaps to gather evidence. The wiretapping had begun by August 2018.
A wiretap tape of a phone conversation between Cullen and Mike McClain was part of the evidence presented in the Madigan trial.
The prosecution team rested their case on Wednesday, December 18.
Trial action will be delayed by the approaching Christmas-New Years’ Day recess.
After the defense team has presented its case, both sides will present closing arguments to the jury.
