Judge denies ex-Speaker Madigan’s request to remain out of prison during appeal

CHICAGO — A federal judge on Friday denied former Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan’s legal arguments that he should remain out of prison while his appeal of both his corruption convictions and 7 ½ year sentence play out.

Madigan is scheduled to report to prison on Oct. 13, though the federal Bureau of Prisons has not yet assigned him a facility. The former speaker, whose 36-year reign in Springfield made him the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history, has already begun the appellate process, though his full arguments aren’t due for another few weeks.

U.S. District Judge John Blakey, who presided over Madigan’s lengthy trial this past fall and winter and sentenced Madigan to his lengthy prison term in June, wrote in a 44-page order Friday that the ex-speaker’s “entire motion rides on routine, and meritless” objections.

“As such, he clings to false hope,” Blakey wrote.

In February, a jury delivered a split verdict for Madigan, convicting him on 10 of 23 corruption-related charges, including bribery and wire fraud. The jury acquitted Madigan on seven counts and deadlocked on another six, but the 10 on which he was convicted involved electric utility Commonwealth Edison and dealings with Chicago alderman-turned-FBI mole Danny Solis, who introduced Madigan to high-powered real estate developers as potential clients for the speaker’s property tax appeals firm.

Blakey wrote that Madigan’s arguments to remain free during his appeal don’t meet the high bar of raising “a substantial question of law or fact.”

The ex-speaker recently hired a team of attorneys who have years of experience arguing at the U.S. Supreme Court. Madigan’s legal strategy centers around the definition of “bribery,” which the high court last summer examined in a case that delayed the former speaker’s case.

Some of those convicted of bribing Madigan, including former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and longtime Springfield lobbyist and Madigan confidant Mike McClain, are also planning appeals on the same grounds.

Earlier this summer, Pramaggiore, McClain and the two other members of theso-called “ComEd Four” were sentenced to prison terms ranging from a year and a day to two years for their roles in orchestrating the bribery scheme.