Federal trial to determine whether or not ex-chief of workers lied to guard his boss, Illinois House speaker

CHICAGO — The trial of a former chief of workers to longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan opened Wednesday with a federal prosecutor arguing that the defendant lied underneath oath to a grand jury to guard his boss.

The 68-year-old Tim Mapes, who served for nearly twenty years as Madigan’s chief of workers, faces single counts of perjury and tried obstruction of justice. A conviction on the obstruction depend alone carries as much as 20 years in jail.

Mapes lied repeatedly when he testified in 2021 to a grand jury investigating Madigan and others. In opening statements, the prosecutor instructed jurors Mapes additionally lied when he stated he couldn’t recall any related particulars about Madigan’s ties to Michael McClain, who’s a Madigan confidant, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“The defendant lied. Not just once but again and again and again, to prevent the grand jury from finding out” what Madigan, a Democrat, was as much as, prosecutor Diane MacArthur stated.

Federal jurors in May convicted 4 defendants of bribery conspiracy involving the state’s largest electrical utility. Prosecutors stated McClain, two former ComEd executives and a former utility marketing consultant organized contracts, jobs and cash for associates of Madigan’s to make sure proposed payments boosting ComEd earnings grew to become regulation.

For many years, the 81-year-old Madigan was probably the most highly effective state legislative leaders within the nation. Then in 2022, he was indicted on prices that included racketeering and bribery.

A 12 months earlier than his 2022 indictment and amid hypothesis that he was a federal goal, he resigned from the Legislature because the longest-serving state House speaker in fashionable U.S. historical past.

In her opening Monday, protection lawyer Katie Hill instructed jurors Mapes by no means deliberately misled the grand jury, saying he merely couldn’t bear in mind many particulars about which he was requested.

Hill likened the questions Mapes was requested to a pop quiz at a highschool reunion. She requested jurors in the event that they’d be capable of bear in mind the colour of their promenade corsages or who was class president their junior 12 months, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

“Tim Mapes did not lie in the grand jury,” Hill stated. “He did not attempt to obstruct justice.”

The first prosecution witness Monday was a former House Majority Leader Greg Harris, a Democrat from Chicago, who defined to jurors how state authorities works. He additionally described the ability Madigan yielded as speaker.

Madigan has denied any wrongdoing.