Jurors set to hear first of 200 secret recordings in Madigan corruption trial
The backbone of the case against former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan consists of more than 200 recordings that prosecutors promised jurors would hear over the next several weeks.
The tapes could begin to roll as soon as Thursday. And if the first few days of testimony are any indication, things will play out much the way they did early in last year’s ComEd bribery trial, which ended with the conviction of Madigan’s co-defendant, Michael McClain, and three others.
The first bombshell moment of that trial involved the testimony of ex-state Rep. Lou Lang. The FBI secretly recorded a 2018 call between Lang and McClain, in which McClain told Lang to resign from the General Assembly. McClain also claimed to be someone’s “agent”— and the feds say he meant Madigan.