If anyone knows how former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan is feeling these days, it might be Rod Blagojevich.
Illinois’ former governor faced sentencing twice. Both times, a federal judge wallopped him with a 14-year prison term that still stands as one of the harshest corruption sentences handed down at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
Now Blagojevich is a free man — commuted and pardoned by President Donald Trump. And Madigan, his onetime political nemesis, is the one facing sentencing June 13.
“I wouldn’t wish what he is going through right now on my worst enemy,” Blagojevich told WBEZ.
“And Madigan,” he acknowledged, “was my worst enemy.”
Madigan’s sentencing by U.S. District Judge John Blakey will cap the most aggressive, expansive corruption investigation in Chicago since the days of Blagojevich. Prosecutors want Blakey to hammer Madigan with a prison sentence of 12 ½ years.
But the world has changed around Blakey’s courtroom since Madigan’s trial. And Trump, back in office, has made prolific use of his clemency power, including for prominent Chicagoans such as Blagojevich and Gangster Disciples co-founder Larry Hoover.
So even while attorneys argue over Madigan’s fate — his defense attorneys say he deserves probation — many wonder, would Trump also grant Madigan clemency?
A member of Madigan’s defense team declined to comment on the issue this week, and there are no indicators it’s something the former speaker and his lawyers are pursuing. Up until this point, Madigan has been a fierce critic of Trump’s, whom he once castigated for his “extremism.”
At the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Madigan bashed Trump for “his deliberate efforts to fan the flames of hatred and racial and ethnic division for his own political purposes.”
But Trump has been known to welcome fealty from former enemies, and given how far Madigan has fallen since then, it’s a scenario that people in legal and political circles now see as entirely plausible, particularly if a harsh sentence gets handed down.
“I think the president has availed himself quite a bit of the pardon pen, so to speak, so I wouldn’t think anything’s off the table,” said Senate Republican Leader John Curran, a former Cook County prosecutor who opposed Trump’s pardon of Blagojevich and says he would not support a clemency request from Madigan.
Michael Ettinger, the defense attorney who once represented the former governor’s brother Robert, said the odds of potential clemency will go up if prosecutors get the sentence they want.
“If [Madigan] gets 12 years, there’s no way Trump’s going to let that stand,” Ettinger said.
Joe Walsh, the former Tea Party Republican congressman from the northwest suburbs and host of the political podcast, The Social Contract with Joe Walsh, said Trump will “pardon anybody if he sees something in it for him.”
Walsh, who declared himself a Democrat this week, said Trump is “giving away pardons like candy now,” and is “easily influenced by people who have been loyal to him.”
“So, if Madigan can find somebody like that, it’s utterly believable that that would happen,” Walsh said.
But first thing’s first: the sentencing.
COURTROOM RITUAL
Madigan faces sentencing in a matter of days. Blakey also plans to deal with the former speaker’s request for a new trial during a Monday hearing. It all comes four months after a jury found Madigan guilty of 10 counts, including bribery conspiracy and wire fraud.
The jury convicted Madigan for his role in a lengthy plot by ComEd to influence him by paying $1.3 million to his allies through sham subcontracting roles that involved little to no work. It also found him guilty of a scheme involving ex-Ald. Danny Solis, an undercover informant who will go down as one of the most impactful moles for the feds in decades.
Blakey is a former prosecutor nominated to the bench 11 years ago by then-President Barack Obama. Before Madigan, the most prominent cases he handled as judge included lawsuits involving basketball superstar Michael Jordan and the Obama Presidential Center.
The judge also happened to inherit Hoover’s case, before the commutation by Trump.
Blakey is usually prompt. Madigan’s sentencing hearing is set to begin at 1 p.m. So by that time, Madigan must return to the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. He’ll need to make his way through security and the courthouse lobby — where news cameras will be waiting — and onto an elevator that’ll whisk him up to Blakey’s 12th-floor courtroom.
When Blakey hops onto the bench, a familiar ritual will begin. The judge must sort out any disagreement over sentencing guidelines, though he’s not required to abide by them.
Then, the lawyers will turn to arguments over the nature of Madigan’s crime, his personal characteristics, and the need to deter Madigan and others from breaking the law.
Before Blakey rules, the famously tight-lipped Madigan will also have a chance to speak directly to the judge.
MADIGAN v. BURKE
For years, Chicago’s frustrated federal judges have wondered aloud what kind of sentences are needed to deter corruption. But last year’s sentencing of ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke suggests prosecutors are unlikely to get their way in Madigan’s case.
Burke walked away last summer with a prison sentence of only two years after being convicted of racketeering in the same investigation that snared Madigan. That sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, now the city’s chief federal judge.
Blakey faces a remarkably similar set of circumstances in Madigan’s case.
Madigan is 83. Burke was 80. Both men spent decades as political powerhouses, giving them the chance to help countless people. Kendall justified Burke’s sentence by leaning heavily on letters he provided documenting his good works. And Madigan has produced the same.
The men were each recorded by Solis, who wore an FBI wire to avoid his own prosecution. And while sentencing Burke, Kendall said, “It does seem a little unwarranted to say that Mr. Solis will get absolutely no time at all.”
But a crucial difference arises when comparing the two cases. Burke chose not to testify in his own defense. Madigan took the witness stand, and prosecutors say he lied under oath to protect himself — with his “back against the wall.”
Specifically, the feds say Madigan lied when he blamed a childhood tic for his tepid responses to Solis — in which he seemingly endorsed corruption with phrases like “yeah, OK.” They also said he lied when he minimized his longtime friendship with Michael McClain.
McClain, a longtime ComEd lobbyist, has been described in multiple trials as Madigan’s emissary in Springfield. He’s also been convicted for his role in the ComEd conspiracy and faces sentencing next month.
Ettinger said “there’s a punishment” when defendants are caught lying on the witness stand, and Blakey will have to set a precedent.
“It’s gonna be jail time,” Ettinger said. “It’s not going to be probation.”
Defense attorneys say Madigan’s testimony was truthful and that he shouldn’t be punished for exercising a Constitutional right. But beyond that, they’ll want to impress upon Blakey Madigan’s many good works.
Nearly 250 people showed support for Madigan in letters submitted to Blakey in May. The letter writers included former Gov. Jim Edgar, who acknowledged that “Mike made mistakes … but he did far more good in making this state a better place to live.”
Ettinger said Madigan’s age should also play a role.
“I’m just totally against him getting a big sentence because of his age,” Ettinger said. “I mean, he’s got no criminal record, no one died. … He’s a politician. And he’s going to get punished. But he shouldn’t spend the rest of his life in jail.”
‘DESPERATE TIMES’
The U.S. Pardon Attorney’s online database shows no formal request from Madigan for clemency.
Other Chicago politicos have made their bid. Burke, eight months into his sentence and due out in March, has a pending request for a commutation. So does Tim Mapes, Madigan’s former chief of staff convicted in 2023 of perjury and attempted obstruction of justice.
Trump has eschewed that formal pardon application process, though. Instead, he’s rewarded the kind of back-door lobbying efforts like the one pursued by former First Lady Patti Blagojevich during Trump’s first term.
Patti Blagojevich spent years tying federal prosecutors in Chicago to political enemies of Trump’s, like former FBI Director James Comey. She repeatedly appeared on Trump’s cable channel of choice, Fox News, to drive home the point. Trump freed Rod Blagojevich in February 2020 by commuting his prison sentence.
The former governor emerged full of praise for the president, calling himself a “Trump-o-crat.” And earlier this year, Trump followed up with the pardon.
Though Rod Blagojevich filed paperwork seeking a commutation during Trump’s first term, the former governor recently told WBEZ, “I never asked President Trump for a pardon. He just did it.”
“The Trump pardon office looked long and hard at the facts of my case and determined that, to quote President Trump himself, I ‘was set up by a lot of bad people,’” Blagojevich said.
Madigan’s situation may be different, the former politician acknowledged. But he said he’s gone through the sentencing process with his family, and knows “how hard it is, especially for your children and your wife.”
Walsh, the former Tea Party congressman, told WBEZ that Trump “is a million percent transactional.”
“If it’s [Blagojevich], if it’s anybody who can get in front of him, they can make a very simple case for Mike Madigan,” Walsh said. “… But there has to be something in it for Trump.”
The ex-governor declined to specifically address questions about any potential bid for clemency by Madigan, or whether Rod Blagojevich himself might be willing to help his one-time rival toward that end.
But he did offer this: “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”