Testimony in Tim Mapes perjury trial centers on Chinatown land transfer at center of Madigan racketeering charges
Efforts to transfer a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown that are at the heart of the racketeering charges against former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan got their first airing in a federal courtroom Thursday, where Madigan’s former chief of staff, Tim Mapes, is on trial for allegedly lying to the federal grand jury leading the probe.
Republican lobbyist Nancy Kimme testified that fellow lobbyist Michael McClain first reached out to her about the Chinatown project in late 2017, and that she later met at then-25th Ward Ald. Daniel Solis’ West Side office with McClain, Solis and the developers seeking to turn a parking lot into a hotel complex.
Kimme testified that McClain, a longtime Democratic confidant of Madigan’s, was there as she got the “overview” of the project, then he left. Solis came in to talk about the project and then he left too, and she “finished up with the developers,” Kimme said.
She said she later learned that the parcel was owned by the Illinois Department of Transportation and would require land transfer legislation in Springfield in order for the developers to use it for commercial purposes.
Kimme testified she understood that Madigan supported the transfer, and she talked often with McClain about it. But IDOT opposed it, and by the spring session in 2018, then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval, the head of the Senate Transportation Committee, apparently intended to block the deal.
In May 2018, with the session deadline looming, Kimme testified she asked McClain whether she could reach out to Democratic state Rep. Theresa Mah to “get her a couple copies of the proposed language of the legislation.”
“I believed she would go to Tim Mapes, who was the clerk of the House,” Kimme said, and that it would be added as an amendment to the land transfer bill.
The amendment proposed by Kimme stated the real estate is “no longer needed by the State of Illinois,” allowing IDOT, subject to the approval of the head of the agency, to convey the land by quitclaim deed at a yet-to-be-negotiated price.
But there was a problem, Kimme said. “Contrary to what the developers had told me, (Mah) was actually not in support of the bill,” Kimme told the jury.
Mah, who represents Chinatown, told the Tribune in an interview in 2021 she did not support the amendment because businesses were concerned it would cut down on parking for customers and the proposed change would interfere with the share of parking lot profits that go to community groups.
“She just proposed something I knew I wasn’t supportive of. So I told her so,” Mah said at the time.
Kimme testified Thursday that McClain told her there was another bill sponsored by a different state representative that she should try to get the amendment on, but that the bill never came up for a vote.
While Kimme didn’t identify the other representative, the Tribune has previously reported the amendment was shopped to then-Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, who was carrying the routine annual land transfer legislation reviewed by the Department of Natural Resources and IDOT.
Bourne previously told the Tribune she agreed to file the amendment with the intention of not calling it for a vote until she knew who was for or against it. She subsequently learned IDOT opposed the amendment and she tabled it, saying she had “discomfort with the process.”
“It was just like a gut feeling, a gut feeling that this isn’t, this isn’t aboveboard,” she said.
An overall land transfer bill later passed without the Chinatown amendment.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Mapes’ trial have played recorded calls where McClain told Mapes the Chinatown land deal was an “assignment” from Madigan.
But when Mapes was asked about whether he’d had any conversations with McClain about the land, he insisted he had not.
After further questioning, Mapes said he did remember McClain “got a visit” from Mah about some parcel, but he couldn’t remember any details. “I just remember she stopped to give me a heads-up, and I just acknowledged it,” Mapes testified in the March 31, 2021, grand jury session.
While Kimme’s testimony was being used to shore up the perjury case against Mapes, the Chinatown episode is also a crucial part of the indictment filed last year against Madigan and McClain, which accused Madigan of illegally soliciting business for his private property tax law firm during the discussions about the parcel with the hotel developers.
Solis, who was secretly cooperating with the investigation, recorded numerous conversations with Madigan on both audio and video as part of the Chinatown land probe, including one where the speaker told Solis he was looking for a colleague to sponsor a House bill approving the land sale.
“I have to find out about who would be the proponent in the House,” Madigan allegedly told Solis in the March 2018 conversation. “We gotta find the appropriate person for that. I have to think it through.”
It was not mentioned during Kimme’s direct testimony that Solis was wearing a wire for the feds, or that Madigan and McClain have been charged with crimes stemming from the failed land deal.
On cross-examination, Kimme testified that land transfer bills are routine and that she never had any conversations or meetings with Mapes about the Chinatown parcel — including the meeting in Solis’ office.
Kimme, the former chief of staff for Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, has come up frequently in testimony both at Mapes’ trial and earlier this year in the “ComEd Four” case, which ended with the convictions of McClain and three other utility executives and lobbyists.
But her testimony Thursday marked Kimme’s first turn on a witness stand, with an encore appearance almost certainly slated for Madigan’s racketeering trial next year.
Mapes, 68, of Springfield, is charged with perjury and attempted obstruction of justice, accused in an indictment of lying in answers to seven questions during his grand jury appearance two years ago.
Mapes, who served for more than 25 years as Madigan’s chief of staff as well as stints as executive director of the state Democratic Party and the clerk of the House, is accused of lying during his grand jury appearance in his answers to seven questions about Madigan’s relationship with McClain.
Mapes has denied making any false statements, and his attorneys have argued that he did his “level best” to provide truthful answers. They also accused prosecutors of asking open-ended questions and failing to provide Mapes with any corroborating materials that might refresh his recollection of years-old conversations.
Prosecutors have said they expect to rest their case in chief against Mapes on Friday. The defense will begin presenting its case on Monday.
Kimme’s testimony added a new political dimension to Mapes’ trial and illustrates how Illinois party labels often don’t matter when it comes to cutting a deal.
As a longtime aide to Topinka, a politician with bipartisan credibility and friends on both sides of the aisle, Kimme enjoyed a similar rapport at the Capitol.
When Topinka died just before newly elected GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner took office in 2015, Kimme helped with his transition and then became an in-demand lobbyist with enviable access to the GOP administration.
She also kept the bipartisan connections she developed in the Topinka years, making her a potential conduit for Democrats seeking help to win over Republican lawmakers and to get favorable consideration on legislation they wanted Rauner to sign.
When Rauner was defeated in his 2018 reelection bid to Democrat J.B. Pritzker, Kimme teamed up to lobby with former Rep. Lou Lang, the longtime Skokie Democrat who Madigan and McClain forced to resign from the House.
Lang, meanwhile, testified Thursday for the second time about that painful end to his 32-year legislative career.
Prosecutors played a series of calls from May 2018 where Mapes and McClain discussed Lang’s future after a medical marijuana advocate accused him of sexual harassment at the end of the spring 2018 legislative session.
Lang was hoping to stay in the House and get back the leadership position he’d given up the day of the accusations. He called for a legislative inspector general investigation, which determined the allegations to be unfounded but noted that the accuser, Maryann Loncar, had refused to participate in the examination.
“Let me put you on with the boss. OK?” Mapes told McClain in one call. “So you’re going to inform him what you know and go from there.”
Prosecutors alleged the episode demonstrates “as clear as day” that Mapes knew McClain communicated with Madigan in 2018, because “Mapes sets up that conversation.”
Lang declared himself vindicated from the initial allegations, but later in 2018, Madigan and McClain had heard of another potential #MeToo allegation that might surface, prompting Madigan to tell McClain to let Lang know he should give up the seat he held for decades.
In the grand jury, Mapes was asked repeatedly whether he was aware of McClain having any contact with Lang after McClain retired from lobbying in 2016.
“I’m not aware of any,” Mapes said.
You don’t recall any conversations with either of them about them talking to each other about it? he was asked.
“That’s correct,” Mapes said.
But numerous wiretapped recordings played for the jury Thursday show the two men spoke many times about it,.
In one call from Oct. 26, 2018, McClain told Mapes, “My assignment is to tell Lou Lang that he has no life in the House anymore.”
“You’ve had one discussion with him. Did you have more?” Mapes asked.
“I’m doing it in tiers,” McClain responded.
In another call, Mapes wondered if McClain would put his “big boy pants” on the day he was going to crack down hard on Lang.
Through Lang’s testimony, prosecutors showed jurors how Lang’s political fund had received thousands of dollars from donors. But McClain later directed that the money be funneled elsewhere to help Democratic candidates.
The process of funneling funds that way gets around multiple disclosure issues through so-called directed donations in coordination with Madigan-run political funds.
An email shown jurors showed that Mapes gave McClain a briefing of how much and who had made contributions to Lang, giving McClain a picture as to how much Lang was expected to “re-donate” to another Democratic-backed fund.
Lang also recalled getting a call from Mapes at some point over the years that various organizations would send money to Lang’s political committee and that he should stay alert for a “list” that Mapes would be sending regarding the funds.
In a recorded telephone call from Oct. 31, 2018, McClain said he would wait until the directed money had all cleared, “Then I gotta tell (Lang) he’s gotta move on, he has no future in the House.”
On the witness stand Thursday, Lang calmly told prosecutors that he was not surprised that it was McClain who called him to deliver the news because “he was the message sender.”
“Mr. McClain was the person dispatched to tell members things that the speaker didn’t want to tell them,” Lang testified.
Other recordings played for the jury Thursday captured McClain and Mapes in candid moments as they discussed strategy and complained about the state of Madigan’s operation, particularly after the speaker forced Mapes to resign his state government and political roles on June 6, 2018, amid #MeToo accusations, which Mapes denied.
In one recording, McClain and Mapes discussed potential job candidates to recommend to the new Pritzker administration. McClain discounted a push by a group of women seeking to put women in important roles, but McClain played down the strategy of “just trying to get a skirt into these positions.”
On another call on July 26, 2018, McClain told Mapes he was driving back from Geneva, where he was “on assignment” from the speaker with state Rep. Sam Yingling.
“How’s the boss?” Mapes asked.
McClain replied, “We had good conversations about you. It was good.”
“I’m not dead yet, Mike,” said Mapes, explaining he was feeling a lot healthier since he’d left the speaker’s office. “My blood pressure is way down.”
“I know you’re not,” McClain said. “I want to make sure you’re not dead for a long time.”
Prosecutors also sought to counter Mapes’ grand jury testimony in which he could not recall how he ended up talking about a possible utility lobbyist job with Anne Pramaggiore, the former ComEd and Exelon executive convicted with McClain in this year’s ComEd Four case.
In his grand jury appearance, Mapes was hazy when asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu how he first connected with Pramaggiore about the potential job.
“I don’t recall exactly,” Mapes said. “I think I got a call from her office, but I don’t — I couldn’t tell you who it was.”
“She just called you out of the blue and said, ‘I want to meet with you?’” Bhachu asked.
Mapes said he remembered only that ComEd had “some reorganization in another state” that they thought he could be helpful with, but that Pramaggiore “never did tell me” which state or provide further details.
“Did she explain to you, like, how she identified you as a person who might be suitable for whatever project (Pramaggiore) had in mind for you?”
Mapes said, “No, sir.”
But prosecutors played a recording of a call in which Mapes and McClain talked matter-of-factly about how McClain had arranged the meeting with Pramaggiore, for which Mapes was clearly grateful.
“I get why it’s somewhat of a privilege, to meet with the CEO,” Mapes said. “I think that felt pretty significant. I’m very flattered.”
