'A malignant tumor:' Defense attorney rips ex-Chicago alderman-turned FBI informant in federal corruption trial

CHICAGO (CN) —Defense attorneys continued their closing arguments Monday on behalf of ex-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.

Monday marked day 53 of the former speaker’s federal trial on 23 fraud, bribery, racketeering and conspiracy charges. Madigan’s attorney Dan Collins, continuing his closing presentation from Friday, laid the blame for the majority of those counts at the feet of former Chicago alderman-turned FBI informant Danny Solis.

“You cannot trust Danny Solis. You cannot trust him. He has his own agenda and he’s sly as a fox,” Collins told the jury.

Solis has a long history in Chicago politics, having served as alderman for Chicago’s 25th Ward from 1996 to 2019 and chair of the city’s zoning committee from 2009 to 2019. He began cooperating with the FBI in June 2016 amid his own corruption allegations.

He assisted with the federal investigation into Madigan starting in 2017 and signed a deferred prosecution agreement on a single bribery charge in December 2018. He secretly recorded multiple conversations with Madigan and others between 2016 and 2018 as part of the deal; he also spent six days on the stand earlier in this trial, testifying as one of the government’s star witnesses against Madigan.

Sixteen of the 23 charges Madigan faces involve Solis in some capacity, and jurors have seen multiple clandestine video and phone clips he helped capture. But Collins warned jurors that Solis did more than just gather evidence. He claimed the former alderman actively manipulated Madigan and others over the course of the government’s investigation.

“Make no mistake, Danny Solis is a malignant tumor at the heart of this case,” Collins told jurors.

Collins brought up how Solis asked Madigan for help finding a state board position in 2018. Solis himself testified that he feigned his interest in a state board job as part of his undercover work. Collins claims Solis preyed on Madigan’s sympathy and sense of family, as he raised the issue with Madigan during a June 20, 2018, conversation in which he also mentioned ongoing issues in the Solis household.

Collins reiterated an assertion he made Friday, claiming Madigan felt moved to help people whenever possible, especially a longtime colleague like Solis.

“It’s who he is,” Collins said of the former speaker.

Collins further claimed Solis manipulated events in two other episodes of the case. The government says Madigan, with Solis’ help, tried to funnel property developers’ legal work to his private law firm Madigan & Getzendanner. Prosecutors also say Madigan backed an unsuccessful legislative effort to transfer a state-owned parking lot in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood to city ownership. Had the lot come under city ownership, prosecutors argued, Madigan could take in legal business from the developers who built on it.

Collins argued on Monday that Solis coached developers on how to speak with Madigan and his law partner Vincent “Bud” Getzendanner and invited himself to meetings between Madigan, Getzendanner and property developers. In a June 23, 2017, conversation, Solis told Madigan he believed the developers for the Union West apartment project in his city ward understood how things “worked.”

“I think they understand how this works, you know, the quid pro quo, the quid pro quo,” Solis told Madigan on the secretly recorded call.

Madigan still took a meeting with the Union West developers at the Madigan & Getzendanner law office in July 2017, but not before pulling Solis aside and politely chiding him for the use of that language. Solis secretly captured video of the encounter.

“You shouldn’t be talking like that,” Madigan told Solis on July 18, 2017, with the Union West developers in another room of the law office. “You’re just recommending our law firm … because if they don’t get a good result on their real estate taxes, the whole project will be in trouble.”

The developers signed a retainer agreement with Madigan & Getzendanner that September.

Prosecutors argued, in their own closings, that Madigan should have backed out of meeting with the developers as soon as Solis raised the idea of a quid pro quo with the Union West developers.

Collins rebutted that Madigan did make a point of telling Solis there would be no quid pro quo in July 2017. He argued the only thing Madigan actually wanted was for Solis to introduce him to the developers. Solis was the one, Collins said, who coached the developers before approaching Madigan. Earlier in trial, jurors saw another secretly recorded meeting from June 29, 2017, where Solis met one-on-one with Union West developer Andy Cretal.

In the video, Solis asks an uncertain Cretal if there would be a “possibility” for Madigan to get work from the development.

“He’s not just some some ‘walking microphone’,” Collins told jurors Monday, mocking a quip about Solis that federal prosecutor Diane MacArthur made in her closing arguments last week.

Collins further accused Solis of using dishonesty to implicate Madigan in the Chinatown land transfer episode. Solis, in 2017 and 2018, represented the area of Chinatown where the parking lot is located. Collins claims Madigan only got involved in the land transfer effort because Solis falsely told him that both the local community and the community’s Democratic state Representative Theresa Mah supported it. That effort sputtered in Springfield when it turned out neither claim was true.

As for potential developers Solis pitched to build on the site once Chicago took ownership of it, Collins denied Madigan wanted anything to do with them. He denied the former speaker even asked for an introduction.

“Mike’s not corrupt, Mike’s not underhanded. Mike got tricked by Danny Solis,” Collins told jurors.

The defense attorney concluded his presentation by reminding jurors to “see the man” of Mike Madigan, and warning them not to let their cynicism toward politicians fill in what he claimed were evidentiary gaps in the government’s case.

Though Madigan’s closings are now finished, jurors still need to hear closing arguments on behalf of Madigan’s codefendant Mike McClain, and the government’s rebuttal closings, before they begin deliberations.

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