Jurors in the corruption trial of ex-House speaker Michael Madigan remained silent Monday, ending their ninth day of deliberations without asking any questions or reaching a verdict.
U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey, who is presiding over the Madigan case, is apparently preparing for the possibility that deliberations could stretch even longer. At a hearing Monday in a different case set to go to trial next week, he told attorneys that if Madigan jurors reach a verdict while the other trial is proceeding in his courtroom, they would have to pause those proceedings and read the Madigan verdict.
“It’s mostly hurry up and wait until we get a result,” Blakey said.
As of Monday afternoon, jurors had deliberated for more than 57 hours. They began their discussions on the afternoon of Jan. 29.
In an unusual move, attorneys for Madigan and his co-defendant, longtime lobbyist Michael McClain, filed a request Monday asking the judge to instruct jurors that, for the purposes of defining a “thing of value,” prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew a salary was not “bona fide wages paid in the usual course of business” – that is, they must prove the defendant knew that salary was being paid due to a bribe.
The request followed an in-the-weeds question from jurors Friday. Their note asked whether part of the definition of “a thing of value” in their instructions regarding bribery charges also applies to the phrases “something of value” and “valuable thing” in their instructions on the wire fraud and travel act charges.
“This is an excellent question,” said U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang, on the bench in place of Judge John Robert Blakey, who Chang said was “absolutely unavoidably absent.”
In their note, jurors pointed out that in their instructions relating to four separate bribery counts, “bona fide” salary paid to someone “in the usual course of business” cannot qualify as “a thing of value.”
They wanted to know if “bona fide salary” could be considered a valuable thing for the purposes of the separate wire fraud and travel act counts.
Ultimately, after arguments from attorneys and a text-message discussion with Blakey, Chang said he would tell jurors that salary paid for jobs that were obtained via bribery is in fact considered a thing of value in the wire fraud and travel act charges.
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He also said he would remind them to consider each count in the 23-count indictment separately.
The defense’s filing Monday argued that if Blakey did not give jurors the proposed instruction, they could risk shifting the burden of proof to the defense as regards to certain bribery charges.
Prosecutors responded in their own filing Monday, saying it is far too late to add new jury instructions and the jurors’ question did not apply to bribery charges in the first place.
After the jury went home for the day, Blakey issued a written ruling that sided with prosecutors, writing that the defense request for a new instruction was untimely and off-point.
“The jury remains fully and accurately instructed on the Government’s burden of proof,” Blakey wrote.
Hanging in the balance is the fate of Madigan and his longtime right-hand man, Michael McClain.
The jury’s deliberations kicked off the final phase of a four-month trial. Its discussions have lasted longer than those in two other recent high-profile corruption cases: The jury in the “ComEd Four” bribery case, which featured evidence that overlapped significantly with some of the evidence in the Madigan trial, reached a verdict after about 27 hours. And jurors in the racketeering trial of former Ald. Edward Burke found him guilty in about 23 hours.
Still, the wait in other federal public corruption trials has been longer, including the 2011 retrial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which ended in a conviction on almost all counts after more than 10 days of deliberations.
Madigan, 82, of Chicago’s Southwest Side, was for decades the most powerful man in Illinois politics, reigning over the state Democratic Party and setting a national record for longest-serving speaker of a state house. He is charged in a racketeering indictment that accused him of running his political and government operations like a criminal enterprise. McClain, 77, is a retired lobbyist from downstate Quincy.
Jurors have to consider 23 counts against Madigan alleging an array of schemes to enrich his political allies and line his pockets. McClain is charged in six of those counts.
In addition to alleging plans to pressure developers into hiring Madigan’s law firm, the indictment accuses Madigan and McClain of bribery schemes involving ComEd and AT&T Illinois, where the utilities allegedly funneled payments through do-nothing subcontracts to a handful of the speaker’s closest allies.
To assist their deliberations, jurors have about 100 pages of legal instructions, dozens of undercover recordings, and hundreds of emails, texts and other documents entered into evidence.
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