Tim Mapes, longtime gatekeeper to House Speaker Michael Madigan, found guilty of lying to federal grand jury to ‘protect the boss’
In his decades as one of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s top aides, Tim Mapes was known as a guy who could marshal the votes needed to win passage of legislation, whether by barking orders on the House floor or twisting arms behind the scenes.
That reputation fell flat on its face in a federal courtroom Thursday, where Mapes lost the most important vote of his life, 12-0.
After a three-week trial filled with political intrigue, a federal jury convicted Mapes on perjury and attempted obstruction of justice charges alleging he lied to a grand jury two years ago in a failed attempt to protect his longtime boss from a widening political corruption investigation.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for about five hours before delivering the verdict in U.S. District Judge John Kness’ packed courtroom.
In its decision, the jury found Mapes had lied on every occasion alleged by prosecutors in the indictment, which consisted mostly of a series of “I don’t recall” answers to questions about “assignments” Madigan was giving to his longtime confidant, Michael McClain.
Mapes, 68, of Springfield, faces up to 20 years in prison on the attempted obstruction count, while perjury calls for a maximum of five years behind bars.
Kness set a tentative sentencing date for Jan. 10.
Mapes, dressed in a gray suit and light green tie, kept his legs crossed and showed little reaction to the verdict. As the jury was led out, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled for moment, then tapped something on his smartwatch.
Within minutes of court adjourning, Mapes strode rapidly out of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse into the 100-degree heat. With his son, Devin, leading the way, Mapes was followed down South Dearborn Street by a horde of cameramen and reporters, drawing the curiosity of passersby.
Neither Mapes nor his attorneys commented to reporters.
In a written statement after the verdict, acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual said the charges against Mapes “strike at the heart of the truth-seeking mission of the grand jury.”
“This conviction should stand as a clear message to witnesses who choose to violate their oath to tell the truth before a grand jury that they will be held accountable,” Pasqual said.
FBI Chicago boss Robert “Wes” Wheeler Jr. said in his own statement “there is no justice without truth” and that attempts to “undermine the prosecutorial process chip away at trust in our institutions.”
Mapes’ quick-and-quiet exit stood in high contrast to his heyday as Madigan’s longtime chief of staff and executive director of the state Democratic Party, when, as the speaker’s premier gatekeeper, he strode the halls of power with an almost autocratic style.
He also served as the clerk of the House, where he was known as a details-driven micromanager adept at keeping the legislative trains running.
Madigan unceremoniously dumped Mapes from all three positions in June 2018 after a staffer accused him of sexual harassment in a year in which the #MeToo movement cost the careers of several Madigan allies.
The jury’s verdict marked the conclusion of a nearly three-week criminal case that centered on relatively straightforward charges yet delved deeply into the behind-the-scenes political intrigue of the scandals that rocked Madigan’s office and ended his decadeslong grip on power.
Mapes is also the second member of Madigan’s inner circle to be convicted by a jury in the past several months, delivering yet another blow to the longtime Democratic boss as his own wide-ranging federal racketeering trial looms next year.
In May, McClain was found guilty along with three others in a bribery conspiracy to funnel payments from Commonwealth Edison to Madigan associates in hopes of gaining the speaker’s influence over the utility’s legislative agenda in Springfield.
Madigan lost the speakership and resigned his House seat in 2021, a year before being indicted along with McClain. That trial is set to begin April 1.
Madigan, McClain and Mapes were described as the three major players in a triangle of power that held sway over the longtime speaker’s Democratic House caucus, government operations and major grip on statewide politics.
One of the more memorable moments in the trial came when Democratic Rep. Bob Rita of Blue Island used his hands to draw a triangle as he told jurors that Madigan sat at the apex and that McClain and Mapes occupied the two remaining corners.
That rough organizational chart was well known in Springfield, as it dominated the flow of legislation in the House and the Democratic politics designed to keep Madigan speaker, a post he held for a national record 36 years.
Sherri Garrett, the former staffer who leveled the accusations that led to Mapes’ departure on June 6, 2018, issued a statement Thursday saying the trial illustrated how “Mr. Mapes and the rest of the inner circle of that organization worked to discredit those of us who were speaking out about our toxic work environment.”
“My experience speaking out about the sexual harassment I endured in 2018 was painful — and more painful was knowing that there were countless others like me who were too afraid of Mr. Mapes to come forward and speak their own truths,” Garrett said. “I hope that those individuals feel some relief today, as I know I do.”
She said she hoped more people will “feel safe coming forward, knowing that their stories can lead to real change.”
At the courthouse Thursday to see the verdict was Alaina Hampton, who sparked the #MeToo blowback for Madigan’s operation by publicly calling out Madigan lieutenant Kevin Quinn in February 2018 for sending a series of harassing and inappropriate text messages when she worked as a campaign aide.
Madigan forced out Quinn, the brother of 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, and his campaign funds ended up settling a lawsuit with Hampton over allegations she was blackballed from the Madigan political operations for speaking out.
Hampton said Thursday her own experience was the “symptom of a toxic culture, and that it started at the top. Tim Mapes was as close to the top as it gets.”
The trial evidence, including numerous FBI wiretapped recordings, showed “Mapes and his closest colleagues strategizing in their efforts to undermine the #MeToo movement in Illinois,” Hampton said in the statement. “None of it comes as a surprise.”
Hampton called the verdict an “important step in the direction of full justice. But there’s more to be done.”
The sexual harassment scandal wound up being a key part of the case against Mapes, who denied to the grand jury knowing anything about McClain delivering to then-Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, the news that Madigan wanted him to leave the House amid rumors that a woman was going to accuse him of harassing conduct.
But Mapes was recorded on wiretapped calls talking about the issue numerous times with McClain. On one call from Oct. 31, 2018, McClain told Mapes he was going to wait until a batch of Lang’s fundraising checks cleared, “And then I gotta tell him that he’s gotta move on. That he has no future in the House.”
“Will you be wearing your big boy pants that day?” Mapes asked, laughing.
Mapes’ lies about the Lang episode were among 14 separate misleading statements that formed the backbone of the attempted obstruction charge. The jury found that prosecutors had proven every one.
In her closing argument Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz told the jury that Mapes was an insider “who was behind the curtain” of Madigan’s often-secretive political organization, and could have given the grand jury key insight when he testified under a grant of immunity on March 31, 2021.
“If the defendant had been honest, he would have been a star witness,” Schwartz said. “But he did everything he could to obstruct the process … to minimize his participation, to act as if he was clueless.”
Mapes’ attorney, Andrew Porter, blasted those allegations in his closing argument, saying Mapes did his “level best” to provide truthful answers. He also accused prosecutors of asking open-ended questions and failing to provide Mapes with corroborating materials that might refresh his recollection of years-old conversations..
Saying Mapes could have been a star witness “assumes, without evidence, assumes that Tim Mapes knew whether Madigan and McClain were discussing these topics,” Porter said. “And he didn’t. ... He couldn’t remember what he didn’t know.”
Porter also said Mapes had no motive to lie, particularly since Madigan had forced his resignation over harassment and bullying allegations that Mapes had denied.
“The government throws out (it was to) ‘protect the boss’. ... Why would he fall on his sword for a guy who kicked him to the curb three years before?” Porter asked the jury.
Over eight days of testimony, prosecutors presented 14 witnesses and dozens of wiretapped phone conversations, emails and other documents in an effort to prove that Mapes was lying.
The prosecution’s case also included the audio of Mapes’ entire grand jury testimony, offering a rare glimpse into a secretive process and illuminating how big-time political corruption investigations play out behind the scenes.
A slew of Democratic Springfield insiders lined up to testify for the prosecution, including Rita, Lang, former House Majority Leader Greg Harris of Chicago, and former top aides to Madigan such as Tom Cullen, Will Cousineau and Craig Willert.
They all described McClain as one of Madigan’s closest advisers, who had served with Madigan in the state legislature decades ago and had singular access to the speaker as a lobbyist for ComEd. It was also well known around the Capitol that McClain continued to do sensitive work for the speaker after McClain’s retirement from lobbying in 2016, according to testimony.
In his grand jury testimony, Mapes claimed that he didn’t see all that much of McClain after his retirement.
“I think he was (in Springfield) occasionally, but I don’t really know his schedule because he wasn’t there much,” Mapes testified. “From what he had told me when he was going to retire is that he was going to phase out some of his clients through the spring session. And I didn’t — I never did have another discussion with him about it after that.”
But the wiretapped conversations played by prosecutors showed Mapes and McClain were in frequent contact up until the time McClain was indicted on bribery conspiracy charges in late 2020.
Not only that, the men appeared in the calls to have a great affection for each other. They talked about their families and the declining health of McClain’s mother. They ate meals together, joked about the perceived shortcomings of certain Madigan staffers, and worried about each other’s futures. At one point, McClain signed off by telling Mapes he loved him.
Other calls showed Mapes and McClain as all business, hashing out strategies and conducting crisis management for Madigan in order to protect the speaker from any fallout.
One key conversation from 2018 captured McClain telling Mapes that he and one of the speaker’s top private attorneys had worked to block the selection of former federal prosecutor Maggie Hickey as the next U.S. attorney in Chicago.
On the call, McClain told Mapes that he’d strongly disagreed with Madigan’s appointment of Hickey to investigate and address the alleged mistreatment of women in the legislature. Hickey had previously served as executive inspector general under Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
“I did everything, Adam Vaught and I did everything we can to get (Hickey) nixed as the next U.S. attorney,” McClain said on the call.
McClain said he was all but certain that Hickey’s findings would be bad for Madigan — and could cost him the speakership. “That was a stupid, stupid appointment,” he said.
Vaught, one of Madigan’s go-to attorneys told the Tribune he had “no idea” what McClain was talking about.
“I wasn’t trying to stop Maggie Hickey,” Vaught said. “Her name was on the list I was told went to the White House.”
Other calls captured how the wheels started to come off the Madigan cart after Mapes’ sudden departure, which came in the middle of a pivotal election season. McClain fretted that he couldn’t find Mapes’ secret list of fundraisers. Other aides who stepped in to “pick up the pieces” worried that they were dropping the ball.
It clearly left a bad taste in McClain’s mouth. A few days after Mapes left, McClain told Mapes he still hadn’t talked to Madigan about it.
“I don’t think I can contain myself right now around him,” McClain said. “I think I would say, ‘I never thought you’d be the one to leave the foxhole.’ But I just ... haven’t even wanted to talk to him. You know what I mean, Tim?”
Schwartz seized on McClain’s “foxhole” comment in her closing argument, telling the jury that if they were to just “sit back and listen” to Mapes’ grand jury testimony, “You would think that the defendant and Mr. McClain were almost total strangers.”
But why did he lie?
“He did it to protect the boss — to protect the boss and stay in the foxhole,” Schwartz said.
