‘There’s a lot of good stuff happening in my ward:’ Star witness testimony continues in Mike Madigan corruption trial

CHICAGO (CN) — The federal corruption trial of ex-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan continued Tuesday with more testimony from former Chicago city councilor-turned-FBI mole Danny Solis.

It was Solis’ second full day on the stand, and his testimony detailed his involvement with Madigan in 2018, while he was working as an informant for the FBI. Federal prosecutor Diane MacArthur raised a scattershot array of topics with Solis over the course of the day, but a major focus was on a state-owned plot of land in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood. In 2018, the state-owned land was in the 25th Ward Solis represented in city hall, and Solis also served as Chicago’s zoning chair at the time.

The land was used as a parking lot — it still is today — but property developers had expressed interest in repurposing it going back to at least 2014. Repurposing the lot required transferring it from state to city ownership in the Illinois legislature. Jurors heard wiretapped phone calls Tuesday and saw videos Solis secretly recorded where he, Madigan, Madigan’s codefendant and former Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain and others discussed the issue over the course of 2018.

Prosecutors say Madigan’s interest in moving the land transfer along, was that the developers who built on the lot after the transfer would hire his law firm Madigan & Getzendanner for real estate tax work.

A land transfer bill for the lot was added as a state House amendment to a state Senate bill on May 31, 2018, the last day of the legislature’s 2018 spring session. This is corroborated by calls jurors heard from that day between Solis, McClain and Madigan.

Per state legislative records, that amendment was tabled in November 2018 and never brought back before the Senate bill it was attached to went to the governor’s office. But in the months preceding the November tabling, Madigan’s circle was still strategizing how to get it passed. In one video jurors saw Tuesday, Solis recorded a June 26, 2018, meeting on the bill with Springfield lobbyist Nancy Kimme — who acted as a liaison between Madigan’s circle and then-Republican Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s office — and Chinatown developers.

Besides the Chinatown lot, MacArthur also brought up Madigan’s interest in securing tax work from property developer Harry Skydell. Property development firm 601W Companies, for which Skydell acted as acquisitions director, bought Chicago’s historic Old Post Office building in Solis’ city ward in 2016 and launched renovations worth hundreds of millions. Solis said he could help set up a meeting with Skydell in a secretly recorded June 20, 2018, conversation with Madigan.

During the same June conversation Solis told Madigan, under FBI instruction, that he didn’t plan to serve out his full term as a Chicago alderman following the 2019 municipal election. He ended up not seeking reelection at all, but at the time he said he would be interested in a job with the state after leaving Chicago politics. He also offered Madigan his continued support finding work for the then-speaker’s law firm.

“I’ll continue to get you legal business,” Solis told Madigan.

Solis’ city hall office soon received an envelope full of salary information for state boards and commissions along with Madigan’s business card, Solis testified. MacArthur then showed jurors saw the envelope and the business card.

Solis did help set up a meeting between Madigan, Skydell and Madigan’s law partner Vincent “Bud” Getzendanner on Sept. 4, 2018. Prior to the meeting, Madigan expressed interest in getting his law firm tax work for the Prudential Building in downtown Chicago. Property development firm Sterling Bay bought the Prudential in 2017, but Madigan believed Skydell’s company had an interest in the building.

Skydell said that wasn’t the case, both at the Sept. 4 meeting and in a separate, Aug. 31, 2018, phone call with Solis.

“We have no interest whatsoever in the property,” Skydell told Solis on the phone.

Former Chicago alderman Ed Burke, convicted last December on corruption charges, also hoped to obtain real estate tax business from Skydell for the Old Post Office. Solis secretly recorded his meetings with Burke over the Old Post Office in 2016 as well.

Before the Sept. 4 meeting with Skydell, Madigan met with Solis about potential state board jobs. During an Aug. 2, 2018, conversation Solis recorded, the then-alderman said he was interested in a job either with the Illinois Commerce Commission or the state Labor Relations Board, both of which came with six figure salaries.

Madigan said he “would go to Pritzker,” when Solis asked how the speaker could help secure either position. Even ahead of that year’s elections, Madigan expected current Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to win the state gubernatorial race.

During the same conversation, Solis told Madigan he would continue to look out for him as well.

“I’ve helped you in the past, I’m gonna continue to help you … there’s a lot of good stuff happening in my ward,” Solis said.

During the trial’s opening arguments last month, federal prosecutor Sarah Streicker said Solis didn’t actually want a state job, but that the the FBI encouraged him to play up the angle. News of Solis being a federal informant broke in early 2019, after which Streicker said he and Madigan stopped talking and Solis stopped feigning interest in a state board position.

Solis’ testimony will continue Wednesday, and likely following Thanksgiving. The whole of Madigan’s trial is expected to last into January.

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