Ex-Blago attorney: Quid pro quo is key to Madigan appeal

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Thursday as judges consider former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s appeal of his conviction on 10 counts of public corruption.

The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals took the case under advisement on Thursday afternoon following a hearing at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.

Madigan defense attorney Amy Saharia said the appellate court should reverse Madigan’s conviction because counts related to ComEd were too vague, and because the government failed to prove quid pro quo related to a state board seat.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz said the properly-instructed jury had ample evidence to find Madigan guilty.

Schwartz asked the court to affirm Madigan’s conviction and said the former speaker corrupted state government at the highest level.

Schwartz said Madigan did indeed participate in a fraudulent exchange involving a state board seat.

“This is quintessential bribery,” Schwartz said.

In her rebuttal, Saharia said it was important to distinguish gratuities from bribes.

Chicago attorney Sam Adam Jr. represented Rod Blagojevich during the former governor’s first corruption trial in 2010.

“The question is going to be, did the government prove that it was a quid pro quo,” Adam told The Center Square.

Adam said the case involves the interplay between the normal course of politics and bribery.

“Are we going to have, it has to be blurred lines that the government can say, ‘See, we’ve shown you enough here,’ or does it have to be real explicitly stated? That’s what the appellate court’s going to come down on,” Adam said.

Judges Frank Easterbrook, Nancy Maldonado and Michael Scudder heard Thursday’s arguments.

Adam said there is no set time for when the panel would rule.

“They could take two months, they could take five months. I believe in Blagojevich, that was so long ago, I think it took about six months for them to decide because they actually reversed a number of the counts there,” Adam told The Center Square.

Madigan was not in court Thursday. The longtime speaker began serving a 7.5-year prison term Oct. 13, 2025, at a minimum security prison camp in Morgantown, West Virginia.

A federal jury convicted Madigan on Feb. 12, 2025, on charges of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and use of a facility to promote unlawful activity.

Madigan served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021 and was speaker for all but two years from 1983 to 2021. He chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois from 1998 to 2021 and also led Chicago’s 13th Ward Democratic Organization.