Jon Seidel
Federal courts reporter
Jon Seidel covers federal courts for the Chicago Sun-Times.
The women went public with accusations of harassment, retaliation and cover-up by Madigan and those around him. Although the trial focused on charges that Mapes lied to a grand jury, the women say the verdict will still send a message to other victims.
Tim Mapes, the former chief of staff to onetime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, is the seventh person to be convicted by a federal jury in Chicago this year as a result of public corruption investigations.
Tim Mapes, longtime chief of staff to one of Illinois’ most powerful politicians, listened as a federal prosecutor accused him of flaunting his oath to tell the truth, committing crimes and choosing “Team Madigan” as a grand jury closed in on his old boss.
Witnesses in the perjury trial of Tim Mapes have said they found his forced resignation in June 2018 to be surprising, unexpected, traumatic. But Tuesday, jurors heard Mapes’ wife describe how he handled being fired amid a #MeToo wave at the Capitol.
Defense lawyers for Tim Mapes are expected to call witnesses of their own over the next day or so. They said they weren’t sure whether Mapes would take the stand in his own defense, though it seems unlikely.
Jurors hear additional recordings that seemed to show the close relationship between Tim Mapes and Michael McClain.
Prosecutors have used a monthslong wiretap of Michael Madigan confidant Michael McClain’s phone to make their case that Tim Mapes lied in 2021 and tried to block the feds’ aggressive investigation of Madigan and McClain.
Tim Mapes is on trial for perjury and attempted obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to block the feds’ investigation of Michael Madigan and Michael McClain, who face criminal charges of their own.
The email, sent by Michael McClain to Tim Mapes and others close to Madigan, was used by prosecutors in Mapes’ perjury trial to undercut the argument that Mapes didn’t remember McClain doing tasks or assignments for Madigan at the time.