The feds are listening.
That’s the message Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu sent last month during Michael J. Madigan’s trial as lawyers discussed a wiretapped call Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman had with disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis.
“Having been on several wiretaps of public officials, I can tell you, reporters call them from time to time,” Bhachu said. “It’s not necessarily the public official calling the reporter.”
The “several wiretaps” component of Bhachu’s message piqued the interest of reporters in the courtroom — and undoubtedly politicians who were following the case. And it sparked some rapid text messaging.
“That sounds menacing,” one reporter friend wrote.
And yet, with Madigan’s guilty verdict on Wednesday on bribery conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud charges — nearly three years after the indictment was brought — have the threats of federal investigations and wiretapped conversations actually deterred criminal behavior in Illinois politics?
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual called Madigan’s style of bribery “refined,” and vowed that the U.S. Attorney’s office will continue to prosecute public officials who violate the public’s trust.
“The bribery here, and corruption here, was refined, not the old-fashioned way,” Pasqual said. “And what this means is that the federal government, the U.S. Attorney’s office and the federal agencies are committing to use any and all lawful tools at our disposal to ferret out and root out corruption, no matter how refined it appears on the surface.”
Some aren’t convinced.
“I think that people adapted to thinking that it’s likely that someone is listening to their phone calls,” said Assistant House Majority Leader Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago. “...I think many people became more mindful. Careful, I’m not so sure. But I think people became more mindful after this indictment.”
Solis and former State Sen. Terry Link both wore wires on fellow lawmakers as part of government deals when their own criminal behavior was presented to them. Link, who served nearly 24 years in the Illinois General Assembly, wore a wire as he asked then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo “what’s in it for me” and helped the feds uncover a brazen bribery scheme.
Solis, who represented the 25th Ward for more than two decades and became head of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, was confronted by FBI agents in June 2016 with evidence of his own wrongdoing and agreed to wear a wire against Madigan and ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke. If Solis holds up his end of the deal he struck with the feds, he will avoid a criminal conviction, and a trial.
During Link’s sentencing hearing in March 2024, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland laid into Link, asking him if corruption was just so acceptable in Springfield that “we could just predict that somebody would just walk up” to Link “and on a dime, you could say, ‘What’s in it for me?’ and we’d be off to the races with a federal case?”
Rowland called that “despicable,” as Link stood and nodded before her. Then, she spared him prison time for his cooperation and gave him three years probation.
“I think the thing is that in most instances, everyone thinks they’re smarter than the last person,” Tarver said. “Or that whatever it is can’t happen to them. I don’t know that it matters who’s brought to the Dirksen building and who’s convicted, because nobody seems to think that it’ll be them next.”
And there’s no indication the ongoing investigation into public officials is over. U.S. District Judge John Blakey last week sealed, “pending further order,” portions of the Madigan trial transcript because they “relate to criminal investigations that are ongoing or are not known to the public.”
Asked whether the Madigan investigation is indeed closed, Pasqual on Wednesday said, “We like to say that we’re never closed for business.”
So what’s the solution, beyond simply not committing criminal acts? Some think lawmakers should be barred from being lobbyists after they leave office. Others think that if members of the Illinois General Assembly were full-time legislators, there would be less conflict with the private world.
Gov. JB Pritzker in 2019 said there’s “potential for conflict of interest” with lawmakers who hold outside jobs and offered up that they should avoid jobs that conflict with their public responsibilities — an issue at the heart of Madigan’s trial.
Former Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, who is now a partner at a lobbyist firm, thinks legislators need to do more, including tightening up economic interest statements and prohibiting lawmakers from certain types of employment. But the onus is also on the elected officials themselves.
“We can’t legislate good behavior. We can’t legislate ethical conduct. That’s an issue for the general public to decide when they vote,” Durkin said. “But as we go down and we look at it from this verdict, there needs to be more reform in Illinois. There has to be a stronger message coming from the General Assembly that we must police ourselves to a greater level.”
Contributing: Jon Seidel