FBI mole and ex-Ald. Daniel Solis back on stand in former Illinois Speaker Madigan's corruption trial
Published in News & Features
CHICAGO — Former Ald. Daniel Solis will resume testifying Monday in the corruption trial of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan about his bombshell turn as an FBI mole.
Solis, 71, the former 25th Ward alderman and longtime head of the City Council’s influential Zoning Committee, took the witness stand late last week to begin what will be a fascinating dive into one of the biggest public corruption cases in Chicago’s sordid history.
His testimony — which could stretch well into December — will include clandestine video recordings Solis made in face-to-face meetings with Madigan, where the longtime House leader and head of the state Democratic Party allegedly used his official influence to shake down developers for business for his private tax appeal law firm.
Jurors will hear Madigan in his own words, telling Solis on a recorded call that he would go to then-Gov.-elect JB Pritzker about a lucrative state board position for Solis, allegedly as a reward for Solis bringing big-time developers to the speaker.
It will also feature recorded conversations in which Madigan allegedly beseeched Solis for help in getting the speaker’s son, insurance broker Andrew Madigan, business with a Pilsen-based nonprofit group that had received millions of dollars in state funds.
There could also be mention of some of the more periphery figures from the sprawling investigation, including his sister, longtime Democratic political adviser Patti Solis Doyle, Chicago attorney Brian Hynes and other politicos from lobbyist and fundraiser Victor Reyes to former U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez.
Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House before stepping down in 2021, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise.
He is charged alongside Michael McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy, who for years was one of Madigan’s closest confidants. Both men have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Solis’ testimony is the culmination of a saga that began nearly eight and a half years ago, when FBI agents confronted him at his home in June 2016 and showed him evidence they’d gathered of his own misdeeds.
The feds had been prepared that day to raid Solis’ City Hall offices. Instead, he flipped, offering what prosecutors have described as “singular” cooperation that helped bring down not only Madigan, but another Chicago political giant in former Ald. Edward M. Burke.
Lawyers for Madigan and McClain, meanwhile, will have plenty of ammunition to bring to what is expected to be a lengthy and grueling cross-examination.
Unlike in last year’s trial of Burke, in which Solis was called as a defense witness, he’ll be subjected to a much broader line of questioning this time around, with the defense probing not only Solis’ unprecedented deferred-prosecution deal, but also episodes from the FBI’s investigation into his own misdeeds that could prove personally embarrassing.
In his opening statement to the jury last month, Madigan attorney Tom Breen painted Solis as a “BS-er” with “a decrepit personal and professional life,” someone who lied to cut a sweetheart deal with the feds that not only will keep him out of prison, but also help him maintain a fat city pension.
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