7th Circuit upholds ex-Speaker Madigan’s conviction of bribery, other
corruption
[April 28, 2026]
By Hannah Meisel
CHICAGO — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the 10 guilty
verdicts that sent former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to
prison, finding no errors in the way the jury was instructed or the
“mountain of evidence” the government used to prosecute the influential
Democrat during his lengthy bribery trial.
The ruling comes a little over two weeks after the three-judge panel
heard arguments from the high-profile legal team Madigan hired last
summer to handle his appeal. And while another 7th Circuit panel earlier
this month swiftly ordered the release from prison and a new trial for
two people convicted of bribing Madigan in a related trial, the judges
who heard the former speaker’s appeal were unconvinced of the similar
arguments.
“Madigan insists that this was run-of-the-mill politics,” Judge Michael
Scudder, an appointee of President Donald Trump wrote for the panel.
“But a jury of twelve Illinois residents saw the evidence differently. So
do we.”
Following a four-month trial, that jury delivered a split verdict in
February 2025, ultimately convicting Madigan on 10 of 23 corruption
counts, acquitting him on seven and deadlocking on another six. The
biggest convictions of the multi-pronged trial, including bribery, were
linked to electric utility Commonwealth Edison, which saw a streak of
legislative wins in Springfield beginning in 2011.
Prior to then, the utility had been facing dire financial straits and
had even gotten close to declaring bankruptcy in the previous decade,
according to testimony from former ComEd officials during both Madigan’s
trial and the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial.
But 2011 was also the year two key Madigan allies began long-term
relationships with ComEd. Democratic fundraiser Victor Reyes’ law firm
inked what ultimately became a multi-year contract with the utility
worth $1.8 million, while recently retired Chicago Ald. Frank Olivo, of
Madigan’s native 13th Ward on the city’s South West Side, began
receiving $4,000 in monthly checks filtered through a longtime ComEd
contract lobbyist, despite doing no work.
During the next eight years, the number of Madigan-allied no-work ComEd
subcontractors grew to five, totaling $1.3 million over the time period,
while utility officials were pressured to hire, or at least interview,
others recommended by the speaker.
And under a few new laws negotiated by ComEd during that time, the
utility not only recovered from their financial turmoil, but began to
thrive.
The 7th Circuit Panel’s ruling Monday echoed what federal prosecutors
said both during trial and the appeals arguments earlier this month.
“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
29-page opinion said. “The linkage was clear and far from fleeting. He
repeatedly facilitated changes to state law impacting countless energy
consumers in northern Illinois, all because ComEd funneled money to the
right people.”
Scudder’s opinion was joined by 7th Circuit Judges Nancy Maldonado, an
appointee of President Joe Biden, and Frank Easterbrook, the most senior
judge on the court, appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
Madigan is serving out his 7 ½-year sentence in a West Virginia federal
prison.
Madigan felled by FBI cooperators
In her appeals arguments, Madigan lawyer Amy Saharia drilled down on
what defense lawyers argued just as often in the course of the trial:
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.
[to top of second column]
|
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan leaves Chicago's
Dirksen Federal Courthouse after a jury convicted him on 10 of 23
corruption charges on Feb. 12, 2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by
Andrew Adams)
Madigan’s legal team tried to poke holes in the government’s theory of a
“stream of benefits” prosecutors said the speaker received from ComEd,
which negated the need for any agreement of a specific “official action”
Madigan would take for a specific benefit.
But the panel did not buy it, saying there “did not have to be” an
“agreement signed at a sit-down meeting.”
“The jury could reasonably infer from this mountain of evidence that
Madigan conspired to receive bribes,” the ruling said. “The jury
received overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Madigan agreed to
help ComEd at a price in 2011 and then stayed the course through early
2019.”
It was in early 2019 when FBI agents approached ComEd executive Fidel
Marquez, who immediately agreed to act as a government mole and secretly
record conversations with others who orchestrated the contracts for
Madigan allies.
The appeals panel pointed to one of those conversations between Marquez
and his predecessor John Hooker, a longtime ComEd executive who’d become
a contract lobbyist for the utility in his retirement. At the time,
Marquez and others involved were worried about how to handle the no-work
subcontractor arrangements with ComEd’s new CEO, a former federal
prosecutor.
“‘You’re not going to do something for me, I don’t have to do anything
for you,’” Hooker said in a February 2019 conversation, speculating on
the speaker’s thought process, adding that Madigan would never say it
outright.
“These were not the views of strangers,” the 7th Circuit panel wrote.
“And the jury was allowed to rely on them (and other like evidence) to
draw conclusions about Madigan’s knowledge and intent.”
Madigan’s dealings with another FBI cooperator, then-Chicago Ald. Danny
Solis, resulted in the rest of his convictions. Prosecutors alleged
Madigan agreed to perform “official action” in exchange for bribes in
the form of business for his property tax appeals firm, including an
alleged scheme to help get Solis appointed to a state board in exchange
for introductions to high-powered real estate developers.
As laid out in trial, Madigan never ended up recommending Solis to newly
elected Gov. JB Pritzker, but the 7th Circuit panel on Monday said that
didn’t matter, as “the jury heard evidence that Madigan did indeed plan
to make the recommendation,” including asking for Solis’ resume and
taking notes on Solis’ preferred appointments.
“The government presented evidence that Madigan understood the weight of
his recommendation,” the panel wrote. “He confidently told Solis to
‘just leave it in my hands’ and said that Solis would ‘come in as
Pritzker’s recommendation.’ We will not disturb these convictions.”
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
 |
