CHICAGO — After 30 days of testimony over three months, prosecutors rested their case in chief Wednesday in the blockbuster public corruption trial of Michael Madigan, formerly the immensely powerful speaker of the Illinois House and leader of the state Democratic Party.

Prosecutors presented about 150 wiretapped calls and undercover video recordings in the case against Madigan and his co-defendant, ex-lobbyist Michael McClain.

And the government put more than 50 witnesses on the stand, including two men who wore wires for the FBI: former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez and, perhaps most memorably, ex-alderman Daniel Solis.

The case now turns to the defense, which has a chance to present its own evidence. They are likely to call far fewer witnesses than the prosecution, and evidence could wrap up entirely as early as Thursday even with an expected rebuttal witness from the government.

The first defense witness, called by lawyers for McClain, was former AT&T Illinois insider Stephen Selcke. Selcke became involved in talks regarding a request from McClain in 2017 to get a contract for former state Rep. Edward Acevedo.

The request came as AT&T was pushing key legislation to end mandated landline service, commonly referred to by the acronym COLR.

Selcke, who was part of AT&T’s government affairs team before his retirement in 2019, was initially on the prosecution witness list, but prosecutors announced they would not have him testify after all.

It is not hard to see why the defense wanted the jury to hear from Selcke. He testified in a previous Madigan-adjacent trial that he did not believe the company intended an act of bribery when, at McClain’s request, they agreed to pay Acevedo a $2,500 monthly contract for little or no work.

Selcke reiterated that position on the stand Wednesday, where he was asked by McClain attorney John Mitchell whether McClain ever threatened that Madigan would kill their legislation if Acevedo wasn’t hired.

“No, I’m not aware of that ever happening,” Selcke said.

“Did Mike McClain ever promise that if AT&T offered a job to Eddie Acevedo, Madigan would pass the COLR bill?” Mitchell asked.

“No,” Selcke said.

Selcke said the goal all along was to be able to go back to McClain and say they’d found something for Acevedo to do so they could “check the box” — as then-AT&T President Paul La Schiazza put it in an email — and get credit for being responsive.

Selcke also said, to his knowledge, no one told Acevedo that his contract would not require actual work. And while he personally would not have sought to hire Acevedo, as a former leader of the House Latino caucus, he did bring some things to the table.

“I think it depended on what Eddie was asked to do as to whether or not he could be an asset or not,” Selcke said.

AT&T decided to hire Acevedo to write a report on Latino members of the General Assembly as well as the Chicago city council, Selcke testified.

He was not asked whether or not Acevedo actually wrote that report.

An FBI case agent testified on Tuesday that a lengthy search of AT&T materials yielded no evidence of work done by Acevedo. And Tom Cullen, an external lobbyist for AT&T, told jurors this week he had never seen a report — and Acevedo’s assignment was sort of an inside joke among AT&T brass.

“It was not viewed as some report that was worth anything, really,” Cullen said. “It was just kind of a joke.”

Selcke did seem to contradict some of the testimony earlier this week from Acevedo himself, who told the jury that as part of his work for AT&T he often met with Selcke at the rail of the Capitol and gave him updates on meetings he’d attended.

Selcke, however, testified that after Acevedo was hired, he received no updates from anyone on what work he was doing.

Just before the lunch break, Selcke testified about the morning the FBI came to his door in 2019. It was 6:30 a.m. and he was still sleeping, he said.

“My wife answered the door. She came back and told me ‘Hey, the FBI is here to talk to you,'” Selcke said, chuckling. “I thought she was kidding. But she wasn’t.”

Many members of the jury laughed along with Selcke at his account.

Selcke has not been charged. He was eventually given a letter of immunity from the U.S. attorney’s office and cannot be charged for anything he says on the witness stand, as long as he tells the truth.

His testimony will resume after a lunch break.

Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise.

He is charged alongside his longtime confidant McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy and Madigan’s longtime confidant. Both men have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.

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