Madigan victim of flawed government justice and negative public image

Mike Madigan was targeted by a justice system that skewers justice when it is convenient or involves popular politicians. The Feds lost the majority of their case winning only the weakest charges

By Ray Hanania

FREE/Politics, Michael Madigan, Corruption, Hypocrisy/Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025

American politics and even the American justice system have nothing to do with the rule of law, fairness, or any form of justice.

Politics is all about popularity and so is the issue of justice, right and wrong.

That’s why I was not surprised the majority of the Federal counts filed against former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, 82, were either thrown out or deadlocked by the jury, including the core foundation of the Justice Department’s case, “racketeering.”

Madigan was convicted of 10 spin-off accusations that really sound weak and ridiculous to me, while 13 other more serious charges were either rejected by the jury or so uncertain the jury deadlocked.

Why did the Feds go after Madigan? It wasn’t because he is corrupt. It was because he was disliked and because he was for many decades one of Illinois’ most powerful politicians.

You need to understand the fundamental basis of politics and our divisive election system which pits one group of people so angrily against another, even more so in today’s extremely polarized America.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Politics is about trust and working with the people who support your agenda, your policies and your vision for a constituency. You don’t work with your enemies who crucified you and libeled you to partner in pursuing your vision. You work with those people who want to roll up their sleeves and work to help you achieve your vision.

Obviously, there is corruption where people actually take bribes to get work done or push agendas. But it also wrongly conflates everyday politics with corruption.

The fact is that “corruption” is defined not always by illegal activities, but by the popularity or unpopularity of a political target.

I call it the American hypocrisy of “Legal Popularity versus Unpopular Prosecution.”

Madigan was the most powerful politician in Illinois for decades, but as a Democrat, he was also the most hated not just by Republicans but by the hypocritical news media. They sucked up to him when he was in office to get their stories and then stomped on him and smeared him when he was out of power.

In the Federal system of jurisprudence, the Rule of Law is influenced by popularity. The more popular and liked you are, the less likely you will be prosecuted. That’s not just in Chicago, Cook County, or Illinois. It’s like that across the country. Chicago just got tagged with it because during the administration of the late great Mayor Richard J. Daley, he once told a reporter “If a man can’t put his arms around his sons and help them, then what’s the world coming to?”

Boss Daley said that when confronted by reporters who questioned him about giving the city insurance to one of his sons also said in response, “If I can't help my sons, then they can kiss my ass."

Politicians support those who support them. They are not going to support and rely on support from those who have dedicated their lives to undermine them, block their vision or throw them out of office.

That’s what happened with Madigan. Federal Prosecutors have described job recommendations by Madigan and his top lobbyist Mike McClain, 77, to ComEd as repeated solicitations of bribes. The Feds asserted that Madigan based support for ComEd legislation in Springfield on how they responded.

The Feds called that racketeering and they made that the foundation of their case against Madigan. But they couldn’t prove it and the jury couldn’t agree and was deadlocked in that disagreement.

Madigan was charged with bribery, based on the job recommendations and Federal claims that the people who received the ComEd jobs didn’t do any work.

The fact that they didn’t do any work wasn’t Madigan’s responsibility. It was the responsibility of those who got the jobs and ComEd. There is no evidence whatsoever that Madigan told ComEd Officials to pay them but not require them to work. In fact, anyone who knows Madigan knows that he abhors people who don’t work including on his staff. You didn’t do your work, you were out.

The Federal Prosecution of Madigan is a sham and reflects the hypocrisies of the American judicial system.

It’s not just about corruption in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois which is constantly spotlighted. It’s also about the corruption that exists across American politics but that is ignored.

Corruption is as much defined by clear acts of unlawful acts as it is by a politician’s popularity. If they like you, you get a pass. If they don’t like you, they exaggerate and trumped up charges to take you down. If you were too powerful, as was Madigan, the powers that be and the media after his retirement sought their exaggerated vengeance.

In reality, sometimes America turns away from corruption because of issues of political popularity.

I can give you many examples, but I am going to focus on several instances that involve Middle East issues because I happen to be a Palestinian from Jerusalem and Bethlehem whose ancestors converted from Judaism to Christianity many decades ago.

When the International Criminal Court, a spin-off of the Nurenburg Court Trials that prosecuted and convicted hundreds of Nazis following World War II, issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, American politicians immediately rose in anger.

Never mind that evidence of war crimes by Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the Gaza Strip is overwhelming. Although the pro-Israel media said Israel’s military killed only 55,000 Palestinians, arguing they were all “Hamas terrorists,” many other independent sources say the number of murdered could be as high as 200,000. The vast majority of the victims are civilians punished because of Hamas’ terrorist assault on Oct. 7, 2023. Thousands of women and children were gunned down, intentionally by Israeli snipers. Shot in the head. The IDF knew they were killing women and children.

Rather than apply the International Rule of Law, the moral principle of demanding justice, or even basic fairness for human life, the White House and the U.S. Congress, who all receive nearly $4 million PAC donations to their election campaigns from pro-Israel lobbies, proposed “sanctions” against the ICC.

Sanctions introduced by Congress have been blocked by partisan debate.

The point is that when it comes to imposing the rule of law on a “friend,” especially someone whose lobby in America provides so much money to members of Congress and the President, justice is shoved aside.

In another instance of clearly ignoring American laws and the Rule of Law, Congress rejected calls to sanction Israel for violating the Leahy Laws, two statutory provisions prohibiting the U.S. Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.

We apply the Rule of Law when it is politically favorable against countries we don’t care so much about, but deny them when it applies to countries we support.

Legal Popularity versus Unpopular Prosecution.

That’s not to mention convenience, how the “Justice” system will give a pass to a real criminal who committed far worse crimes simply because he agreed to wear a wire and go undercover for them, like former Ald. Danny Solis.

Solis, once a great politician, quickly soured and admitted he was charged with bribery “for trying to solicit campaign contributions from a developer that had a pending application in my Zoning Committee.”

That wasn’t even the worst of it.

When I look at what Madigan did, he was merely doing what the American political system forces elected officials to do. Elected officials support their friends and fight with their opponents. Government officials reward those who support their agendas, policies, and programs, and respond with pushback to those who don’t.

When you look at the charges filed against Madigan, what did he do? He recommended several allies for jobs with ComEd. What they did at ComEd is the responsibility of the utility company. Did they work or not work? That’s up to the company.

And why is Madigan being held up to a different standard than other politicians? His law firm certainly would benefit from the popularity of his name and the media coverage that his government career has generated.

The fact is that his actions are no different than the actions of every elected official, not just in Chicago, Cook County, or even in Illinois. It’s the same across the country and oftentimes even worse.

The media and many of Madigan’s are praising the results of the corruption trial. But in truth, it’s an embarrassment for the U.S. Justice Department.

They lost the core of their case when the jury deadlocked on the foundation charge of “racketeering conspiracy.” The jury acquitted on seven other exaggerated charges. Six other charges were deadlocked meaning the Government clearly failed to make their case, because the evidence was exaggerated.

When you throw 23 charges at one of the most despised and powerful former Illinois politicians and only 10 of the least important stick, that’s an embarrassment and suggests the entire prosecution was a sham.

Here’s a score sheet of what happened to cut through the cloud of reporting prejudice that we see dominating the media and Justice Department statements:

Convictions (10 counts):

· One count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.

· Four counts of using interstate facilities to promote unlawful activity.

· Three counts of wire fraud.

· Two counts of bribery.

Acquittals (7 counts):

· Four counts of using interstate facilities to promote unlawful activity.

· Two counts of bribery.

· One count of attempted extortion.

Deadlocked Counts (6 counts):

· One count of racketeering conspiracy.

· Two counts of wire fraud.

· One count of bribery.

· One count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.

· One count of using interstate facilities to promote unlawful activity.

I have known Madigan since I started in political journalism back in 1976. We just as often agreed on issues as we disagreed.

Overall, however, I view Mike Madigan was one of the smartest politicians who did his best for the people of Illinois.

Many of his programs benefited taxpayers, although he was constantly sniped at by less intelligent and envious political rivals.

Madigan is a far better politician than many of the politicians in Illinois and across American who embrace hypocrisies, do little for the taxpayers, and profit for themselves.