Ex-speaker Madigan to begin 7.5-year prison sentence Monday
[October 13, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – One day before the Illinois General Assembly’s
fall veto session is scheduled to begin, one of the most powerful
lawmakers in state history is headed to prison.
Michael J. Madigan, D-Chicago, served in the Illinois House from 1971 to
2021 and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He
chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years and led Chicago’s
13th Ward Democratic Organization.
A federal judge sentenced Madigan to 7.5 years in prison and ordered him
to pay a fine of $2.5 million earlier this year, after a jury convicted
the former speaker on 10 counts of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and
use of a facility to promote unlawful activity.
Judge John Robert Blakey presided over the trial of Madigan and
codefendant Michael McClain. Blakey also sentenced Madigan and ordered
the former speaker to report to prison at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13.
Brian Gaines, Honorable W. Russell Arrington professor in State Politics
at the University of Illinois, said he did not think Madigan would end
up behind bars.
“I always thought he was a master of control and someone who had figured
out just how to tiptoe along the lines of legality but stay on the right
side,” Gaines told The Center Square.

Gaines said it was not unprecedented for Illinois to have a legislative
leader sentenced to prison, adding that there was a period when Illinois
had two powerful House leaders.
“If you referred to the speaker, you had to be clear about whether you
meant the speaker of the Illinois House, Michael Madigan, the most
powerful man in Illinois, or the speaker of the U.S. House, Dennis
Hastert, who at the time was a prominent Illinois politician in a
position of great power and who himself landed in prison,” Gaines said.
In 2016, Hastert, R-Plano, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison
after he pleaded guilty to illegally structuring cash withdrawals in
order to evade financial reporting requirements. The plea deal followed
accusations that Hastert sexually abused students at a school where he
worked years before.
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Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan enters the federal
court building in Chicago, Jan. 13, 2025. Photo: Jim Talamonti / The
Center Square

Gaines said the broader public has a short memory for political
names.
So if you’re not someone who follows politics closely, I think the
news that a former speaker is going to prison might make people
shake their heads, but they’ll have forgotten most of the details.
They’ll think it’s some sort of financial crime, just bribery of
some kind. It fades fast, I think, for people who don’t care very
much about politics,” Gaines said.
Blakey described the case as “really sad” when he handed down
Madigan’s sentence.
“Being great is hard, but being honest is not,” Blakey said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker suggested at the sentencing
hearing that Madigan’s damage to the fabric of Illinois was even
greater than the damage done by convicted former Gov. Rod
Blagojevich, D-Chicago.
In 2020, President Donald Trump commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year
prison sentence for public corruption in 2020 and then granted the
former governor a full pardon earlier this year.
“Governors, they came and went over the years, but Madigan stayed.
His power and his presence remained constant,” Streicker said. “The
primary harm is the erosion of trust in government.”
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