When Danny Solis finally stepped into the well of a federal courtroom Thursday, he made a sharp turn toward the jury box and then another toward the witness stand that had been waiting for him for more than eight years.
The path he chose kept him as far as possible from a man on the other side of the courtroom, former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. Though Solis never looked Madigan’s way, Madigan’s eyes seemed transfixed on the most highly anticipated witness in his trial.
Solis wore a blue suit, blue tie and glasses. He took his seat and introduced himself to the jury.
“My name is Daniel Solis, S-O-L-I-S,” he said. A moment later he added, “I was alderman of the 25th Ward.”
Federal prosecutors also regard him as one of Chicago’s “most significant cooperators in the last several decades.” He secretly recorded some of the city’s most powerful politicians for the FBI after it accused him of selling his influence for campaign cash and Viagra.
And now, with Solis’ arrival in the 12th-floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge John Blakey, the racketeering conspiracy trial of Madigan and longtime ally Michael McClain has opened a brand-new chapter that promises new intrigue and revelations about prominent Chicagoans.
Before Solis, 75, even took the stand, the proceedings turned electric Thursday with the testimony of FBI Special Agent Ryan McDonald. Under cross-examination by Madigan defense attorney Dan Collins, McDonald confirmed that the FBI wiretapped Solis’ sister — former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle.
Collins also pressed the agent on Solis’ meetings — recorded and unrecorded — with political insider Brian Hynes after Solis agreed to wear a wire.
Hynes was the first person Solis reached out to after the FBI confronted Solis on June 1, 2016, McDonald acknowledged. Hynes could not be reached for comment Thursday.
‘Mr. Solis’ cover effectively … blown’
The agent also testified about the Chicago Sun-Times’ role in exposing Solis. The newspaper was the first to obtain a bombshell FBI affidavit detailing the feds’ investigation of the veteran City Council member. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu showed jurors a Jan. 24, 2019, email in which Madigan’s assistant told McClain to have Madigan look at a Sun-Times report.
“Had Mr. Solis’ cover effectively been blown by the newspaper articles?” Bhachu asked.
“Yes,” McDonald testified.
Solis testified for a little less than an hour before the judge sent jurors home for the weekend. Solis is expected to return to the witness stand when the trial resumes Monday, and he is expected to testify about three schemes in which Madigan allegedly tried to use Solis to secure business for his private tax law firm.
However, Solis could also find himself finally answering for the allegations in the FBI affidavit obtained by the Sun-Times. It alleged that Solis took — or offered to take — official action for people providing him with campaign contributions, prostitution services, the use of a multimillion-dollar farm once owned by Oprah Winfrey, and Viagra.
He called it the “blue medicine.”
Up until now, jurors in Madigan’s trial have heard five weeks of testimony about an alleged bribery scheme at ComEd aimed to curry Madigan’s favor. But those allegations had already been aired in a separate trial last year, which ended with McClain’s conviction.
Now the trial will explore evidence that has never before been made public. Madigan, 82, is accused of leading a criminal enterprise designed to enhance his power and financial well-being, with McClain acting as his agent.
‘Universe of individuals unrelated to folks in this case’
The feds began laying the groundwork for the new phase with McDonald’s testimony, taking jurors back in time to 2014. That’s when a Chinatown developer, See Wong, secretly recorded Solis and Madigan during a meeting at Madigan’s law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner.
That event triggered a wiretap on Solis’ phone that lasted for several months in 2014 and 2015. The feds listened to Solis’ phone calls and surveilled him until they finally confronted him with their recordings at his home on Delano Court in June 2016.
McDonald said it took about 10 minutes for Solis to ask to speak to a lawyer. The agent said Solis reached out to Hynes because Solis didn’t know the name of a defense attorney. After consulting with one overnight, McDonald said Solis agreed to work with the feds.
If he hadn’t, McDonald said the FBI had agents ready to descend on his offices at City Hall.
Notably, Bhachu asked McDonald about the first year of Solis’ cooperation, asking, “was Mr. Solis’ cooperation focused on a universe of individuals unrelated to folks in this case?”
McDonald confirmed that was accurate. Solis also recorded then-Ald. Edward M. Burke during that time. However, McDonald also testified during Burke’s trial last year that Solis’ cooperation initially had nothing to do with Burke, either.
Meeting Michael Madigan
The agent testified Thursday that Madigan caught the feds’ attention when he reached out to Solis about an apartment development in June 2017.
The bulk of Solis’ testimony focused on his background and City Hall machinations. Solis said he first met Madigan in the late 1980s when Solis brought a delegation of parents from Chicago down to Springfield to push legislation important to the city’s Latino community.
Solis was involved in numerous neighborhood organizations, including the United Neighborhood Organization, before then-Mayor Richard M. Daley picked him to fill a vacated 25th Ward seat in 1996. Solis held the seat until 2019.
Solis testified that development in the 25th Ward was particularly active between 2011 and 2019, especially in the South Loop and West Loop neighborhoods. Meanwhile, prosecutors used Thursday’s testimony to introduce jurors to a crucial unwritten rule at City Hall: aldermanic privilege.
“A development would not get approval for a zoning change unless the alderman of that particular neighborhood would support it,” Solis told them.
Not only that, but he said developers also often required approval from the City Council’s Zoning Committee.
For many years, that was Solis.