Prosecutors begin playing Tim Mapes’ 2021 grand jury testimony in Madigan probe, offering rare glimpse into normally secret proceedings

CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday began playing the audio of Tim Mapes’ 2021 testimony before a federal grand jury in which he allegedly lied to protect his longtime boss, the once powerful Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The playing of Mapes’ testimony is offering a rare public glimpse into normally secret grand jury proceedings, not only lifting the veil on some of the ways large-scale investigations proceed but also providing some of the cat-and-mouse that goes on between prosecutors and witnesses.

Mapes’ March 31, 2021, testimony started out with Assistant U.S. Attorney Amareet Bhachu warning Mapes that he needed to tell the truth or his immunity deal would not prevent him from being prosecuted.

“You understand you are under oath and you are obligated to tell the truth,” Bhachu said. “If you tell the truth, you’re in good shape. If you lie, there’s a possibility of perjury” charges being filed against him. “Yes sir,” Mapes confirmed.

Mapes, 68, of Springfield, is charged with perjury and attempted obstruction of justice, accused in an indictment of lying in his answers to seven questions during the more then two-hour testimony.

The latter charge calls for up to 20 years in federal prison, while lying to a grand jury carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. Mapes has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors accused Mapes of lying about his knowledge of the political activities of Madigan and McClain, both before and after Madigan ousted Mapes in June 2018 in a #MeToo scandal.

It is unusual for prosecutors to play a recording of a grand jury testimony during a trial, but the development allowed jurors to hear Mapes speaking carefully in the first half of the audio that was played up until the lunch break.

Mapes confirmed for Bhachu at the outset of the questioning that his original date to testify was postponed for several weeks so he could prepare for his testimony with his attorney.

After having Mapes describe his typical duties, Bhachu began asking specifically about his relationship with Madigan and what he knew about Madigan’s closest friends.

Mapes he ticked off Madigan’s law partner, Vincent Getzendanner, insurance and real estate businessman Terry O’Brien, and Roger Kiley, a Madigan college friend who served as a top aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Mapes also mentioned longtime House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat, but Bhachu seemed unimpressed with that example, asking, “Who else?”

“Another one might be Mike McClain,” Mapes offered hesitantly. At the time, McClain was under indictment for bribery conspiracy in the ComEd Four scheme.

“(McClain) was one of my frie- sorry strike that,” Mapes said, stopping short of calling McClain a friend. “He was a member of the legislature before I started…And then he was also a member of the leadership before he lost his election.”

But Mapes, at least in the portion of the recording played so far, did little to underscore the tight political relationship of Madigan and McClain, who served with the speaker when they were both rank and file lawmakers in the 1970s and early 1980s and then worked with him closely on government and political issues even while serving as a lobbyist.

Mapes said McClain would stop by the speaker’s office, sometimes when he was representing a lobbying client and sometimes “to say hi.”

Prior testimony in the trial indicated McClain, despite his longtime role as a lobbyist, often camped out in a conference room between the offices of Madigan and Mapes in the speaker’s Capitol suite.

Mapes even played down Madigan’s longtime admiration of Mayor Richard J. Daley, someone Madigan often spoke about with reverence.

“I think he had a respect for him,” Mapes said. “I don’t know about esteem.”

Mapes said he remembered Madigan saying Mayor Richard J. Daley “was a good politician” but testified that Madigan didn’t say why he thought that.

Earlier Tuesday, prosecutors sought to support their argument that Mapes fudged in the March 2021 grand jury if he had been aware of any tasks or assignments that Madigan gave McClain in 2017 or 2018 as well as related questions.

Prosecutors played a secretly recorded call from May 30, 2018, where Mapes and McClain talked about the proposed sale of a parcel of land in Chinatown to a developer that had become a focus of the investigation into Madigan.

McClain told Mapes on the call that the land sale was “an assignment, as you probably know,” a reference to the speaker that prosecutors say shows Mapes was well aware that Madigan was doling out tasks to McClain.

“I’m trying to get some, uh, legal property transferred...And uh it’s in (state Rep. Theresa) Mah’s district, and the guy that’s putting a brick on it right now in the senate is, uh, Marty Sandoval,” McClain told Mapes on the call.

“It’s not a good thing to do,” Mapes responded about Sandoval, an on-again, off-again Madigan ally who at the time was the powerful head of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Mapes also warned McClain that Mah had an “in-your-face” style that included “body language” he found abrasive.

“You see the intensity in a really negative way,” Mapes said.

After some small talk about meeting for dinner, the two began speaking about how good then-top ComEd lobbyist John Hooker looked for his age, especially given Hooker’s recent knee-replacement surgery.

“Well you know, (Hooker), everybody was complimenting him,” McClain told Mapes. “It’s like he’s repelling down from heaven to save the day you know?”

ALso Tuesday, prosecutors called Mika Baugher, Madigan’s former secretary who worked closely with Mapes on the speaker’s busy schedule.

Also Tuesday, lobbyist Will Cousineau is expected to make his second appearance on the witness stand in federal court. Cousineau worked closely with Mapes for years as a top political guru on former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s staff and stayed within a small circle of advisers while Madigan remained in power.

Cousineau’s testimony is highly anticipated because he already showed that he can be a valuable witness for the government in the “ComEd Four” case earlier this year, which ended with the convictions all defendants on bribery-related counts, including Madigan confidant Michael McClain, a longtime ComEd lobbyist.

Cousineau testified in the ComEd Four trial about Madigan’s behind-the-scenes efforts that helped ComEd pass legislation favorable to the giant utility’s bottom line.

Now prosecutors are seeking to have Cousineau testify about a 2014 email among Madigan’s inner circle that discusses a report by the legislative inspector general about Madigan’s moves to help political allies with government positions at Metra, the suburban commuter train service.

Mapes allegedly forwarded the memo to Cousineau and others and called for a high-level meeting.

Mapes, McClain and Cousineau all participated in the meeting, according to prosecutors, who want to use the episode as an example of how Mapes was well aware of McClain’s intricate role in Madigan’s government and political operations.

Mapes was one of a string of Madigan aides caught up in #MeToo issues in 2018, prompting fear among Madigan supporters that it could cost him the speakership. He was eventually forced out as the ComEd scandal began to engulf him. Madigan, the longest serving leader of any legislative chamber in American history, lost his speakership in January 2021 and soon resigned the House seat he had held for more than 50 years.

In 2014, a secret report put together by the legislature’s watchdog in the wake of a Metra scandal explained in detail how Madigan navigated the intersection of public business and ward-style patronage through his Southwest Side office and Illinois Capitol suite.

The unflattering analysis by then-Inspector General Thomas Homer was based on interviews with Madigan’s political allies, government officials and the speaker himself.

The confidential report, disclosed by the Tribune, contained an account of Metra’s chairwoman entering Madigan’s Capitol office to talk about state issues and leaving with a yellow Post-it note bearing names of two workers the speaker wanted to see promoted.

In another meeting, Metra lobbyist Tom Cullen, who testified earlier in the Mapes trial, was spotted leaving the speaker’s office with two resumes. Yet another time, Madigan simply called the cellphone of one of his “better” precinct captains to tell him about a state job.

The report, which was never officially released, gave a rare glimpse into Madigan’s thoughts on getting people government jobs and raises. In an interview with Homer, Madigan was quoted as speaking highly of both the work-related credentials and the political experience of one 13th Ward operative the speaker backed for a raise.

“You can understand that there are many people that are involved with me and campaigns and community service,” Madigan said, according to the report. “Among these many people, some are better than others. (He) happens to be one of those who is better than others.”

The report is the product of an investigation Madigan himself requested as a scandal unfolded surrounding the ouster of then-Metra CEO Alex Clifford and the severance package he took with him that was worth up to $871,000.

The legislative inspector general was tasked with looking into whether Madigan’s actions in the high-profile scandal created pressure that contributed to Clifford’s departure — a notion Madigan denied through an attorney, according to the report.

Cousineau and Cullen have turned up in other controversial moments. They were among five utility lobbyists who sent checks to Kevin Quinn, a longtime Madigan aide ousted from his government and political team in 2018 over a headline-grabbing sexual harassment scandal. McClain orchestrated the payments to be made through contracts he and the other lobbyists set up for Quinn.

At the time, a Madigan spokeswoman sought to portray the speaker as “not a part” of the group. But court records, citing a phone call between Madigan and McClain, alleged Madigan knew it was happening—undermining his attempt to separate himself from the effort to give Quinn a soft financial landing.

On Monday, a former FBI agent who headed the blockbuster corruption probe against Madigan likened his style as one more fitting to the head of an organized crime family than a legitimate political operation.

“Mr. Madigan ran his organization, as close as I can compare it to, almost the head of a mafia family,” former Special Agent Brendan O’Leary testified, noting that Madigan rarely used the phone, texts or emails to communicate orders.

“The ability for us to hear about what happened generally came down to the people on the inside being honest, and that is what we relied on,” O’Leary said.

On Tuesday, Mapes attorney Andrew Porter sought to strike from the record O’Leary’s mafia remark, saying it was “unfair” and “highly prejudicial” to Mapes.

“After he uttered the words, they are in the jury’s mind,” Porter said of the agent’s testimony. ...

Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur countered that it was too late to bring the issue up given O’Leary’s testimony was the day before, that the comment was a passing reference and that striking the comment retroactively would be prejudicial to the government’s case.

“We’re not going to be calling Speaker Madigan the don,” MacArthur said.

The judge agreed with MacArthur, saying he did not want to “upset the apple cart” by addressing O’Leary’s testimony a day later.

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