Michael Madigan

A federal judge in Puerto Rico last week told a politically connected former state contractor that if he wants to sue for defamation against the people who’ve accused him of defrauding the state of Illinois, he’ll have to do so in an Illinois courtroom.

A Republican proposal that would give citizens the ability to propose ethics-related constitutional amendments on the ballot received a bipartisan boost Tuesday when former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn endorsed it.

After suddenly pleading guilty as his federal corruption trial was wrapping up this week, former state Sen. Sam McCann won’t be released to await sentencing, U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless ruled Friday.

Illinoisans pay tens of millions of dollars each year to utilities to cover costs they accrue for lawyers, belonging to trade groups, making charitable contributions and purchasing advertisements meant to boost utilities’ public image.

A federal judge in Chicago sentenced a former chief of staff to longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to two and a half years in prison Monday for lying under oath to a grand jury to protect his once-powerful boss.

The trial is now scheduled for several months after the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on the case of a northwest Indiana mayor convicted under the same federal bribery statutes at play in former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s case

Deliberations began in obstruction of justice and perjury trial of Tim Mapes, the former chief of staff to then-Speaker Michael Madigan.

Attorneys for Tim Mapes, the former chief of staff for then-Speaker Michael Madigan, hired an expert witness in learning and memory, who told the jury factors like stress or busyness can negatively affect a person’s ability to encode and store memories.

Rich Miller: Not one of the lies former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s former chief of staff is accused of telling a grand jury while under a grant of immunity was about illegal activity.

Tim Mapes, former chief of staff to then-Speaker Michael Madigan, told a grand jury he didn't know whether Mike McClain was in contact with a particular legislator, but wiretapped calls show the legislator was a frequent topic of conversation between the two.

Tim Mapes, the former chief of staff to then-Speaker Michael Madigan, was warned three separate times during his grand jury testimony that the immunity order he was under meant that he could be charged with perjury if he wasn’t truthful.

As the trial of Tim Mapes, former chief of staff of then-Speaker Michael Madigan, continues, the jury learned how lobbyist Mike McClain struggled to go "cold turkey" on phone calls after FBI raid on his home.

Michael Madigan never had a cell phone or email address of his own while speaker of the Illinois House. Madigan, now 81, instead relied on his “tight inner circle” to communicate on his behalf, an ex-FBI agent testified.

“I always try to protect him," a federal prosecutor said her opening statements, quoting Tim Mapes, Michael Madigan's ex-chief of staff who was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a bribery case involving ComEd.

Michael Madigan's former chief of staff is accused of lying to a grand jury despite being under an immunity order. He has maintained his innocence, and on Monday jury selection begins in his federal trial in Chicago.