Former Ald. Daniel Solis’ testimony about his extraordinary role as an FBI mole will continue for a fourth abbreviated day Wednesday before the corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan takes an extended break for Thanksgiving.
Soils, the longtime 25th Ward alderman and chairman of the zoning board, has been on the witness stand since last week, giving jurors a fascinating front-row seat in one of the nation’s largest public corruption cases. sordid history of Chicago.
U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey said he would break off testimony Wednesday at noon so jurors can start their vacation plans. The trial, which began on October 8, will resume on Monday and is expected to last until mid-January.
Solis’ testimony Tuesday focused on a series of secret recordings he made as an FBI cooperator that appeared to show Madigan was more than willing to use his influence to help Solis, who at the time had facilitated meetings between Madigan and Solis developers. booming neighborhood.
The videos, taken during meetings at Madigan’s downtown law office, showed that as their relationship continued to develop through 2018, Madigan began asking Solis for additional favors, including helping his son, insurance broker Andrew Madigan, to have a face-to-face with a non-profit operation that had already blown him up.
At one point, prosecutors paused the video in which Madigan held up her son’s Alliant-Mesirow business card and said her son just needed an opportunity. “Give him a chance to show what he can do… get your foot in the door,” Madigan said.
Solis then called the speaker to let him know that he had arranged a meeting between Andrew Madigan and the Resurrection Project, as he had been asked.
Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House before resigning in 2021, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and its political operations like a criminal enterprise.
He is charged alongside Michael McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from upstate Quincy who for years was one of Madigan’s closest confidants. Both men have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
It’s the culmination of a saga that began nearly eight and a half years ago, when FBI agents confronted Solis at his home in June 2016 and showed him evidence they had collected of his own misdeeds.
Solis’ testimony Tuesday focused on Madigan’s alleged attempts to win business for his law firm from developers who had megaprojects underway in Solis’ neighborhood.
“I’m going to continue to bring you legal cases,” Solis told Madigan in a video played for jurors. “There are all kinds of things happening in the South Loop and the West Loop.”
Solis then threw an even bigger bait, telling Madigan he could pitch him to Harry Skydell, the New York-based developer of the massive $300 million renovation of the Old Post Office and the counterpart de Madigan, Ald. Edward Burke, also pursued legal studies.
At the time Solis offered to introduce Madigan to Skydell, he had just spent months of undercover work against Burke involving dozens of phone calls and meetings about the Skydell post office renovation project.
In fact, the most infamous line from Burke’s own trial, where Burke asked Solis “Have we landed the tuna?” had occurred more than a year before Solis’s conversations with Madigan.
Burke, the city’s longest-serving alderman and powerful chairman of the Finance Committee, was convicted last year and is serving a two-year prison sentence.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
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