Precisely one month from the history-making moment former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was convicted of corruption, a one-time federal prosecutor tells NBC Chicago that Madigan may end up cleared of all charges. NBC Chicago’s Chuck Goudie reports.
Precisely one month from the history-making moment former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was convicted of corruption, a one-time federal prosecutor tells NBC Chicago that Madigan may end up cleared of all charges.
Former assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Safer says that Madigan, 82, is undoubtedly maneuvering Washington backchannels to charm President Donald Trump, who believes that corruption cases are witch-hunts.
Madigan’s conviction, a split verdict, jarred Illinois’ political backbone.
This week, NBC 5 Investigates has learned that Madigan’s attorneys have managed to stall post-conviction hearings-arguing that there are just too many documents and pieces of evidence to peruse before a forfeiture hearing.
The government will be asking for more than $3 million from Madigan in fines for his bribery and kickbacks.
Proceedings were to resume this week. But Madigan's attorneys have been granted a delay and the forfeiture hearing now isn't until June 9, said to be due to the boxloads of evidence.
In a newly filed federal court document, Madigan's attorneys note that: "This trial occurred over the course of 16-weeks. The evidence at trial included the testimony of 63 witnesses, over 200 recordings, and over 1,000 documents. The final transcript of proceedings is almost 11,000 pages."
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"The longer the process takes, the longer he is free," said Safer. On Wednesday the former assistant US Attorney in Chicago Ron Safer suggests something else may be at work: Safer tells NBC Chicago the longer Madigan stays out of prison, the greater the chance he may get off the hook altogether...privately appealing to the new administration in Washington, who's leader President Trump believes corruption investigations are witch-hunts.
"His attorneys will and say this was an unjust prosecution. This was just like your (Trump’s) prosecutions. You, and your Department of Justice, should dismiss them. And he buys himself a little time to do that. And there certainly is some reason to believe that there are sympathetic years to things like this.”
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If Madigan ends up free and clear of the landmark conviction, Safer said no one should be thunderstruck.
“It would not surprise me if this administration decided that they're going to throw out the run of the mill public corruption, prosecutions,” he said.
“They have indicated that they really have grave doubts about those kinds of prosecutions, that they said that they're politically motivated, and obviously they have a very personal interest in saying so.”
Safer said Madigan’s exoneration would be no different than that of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Late Wednesday, Madigan's attorney Dan Collins declined to discuss the ongoing case-but said his team is busy preparing for upcoming hearings and sentencing down the road. So there is no official word on speculation that Michael Madigan may be angling to have his conviction dismantled and maneuvering DC backchannel's to try to achieve that.
