Madigan Defends Himself With Swollen Campaign Fund Thanks To Gov.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Supreme Court last week ruled that indicted elected officials are allowed under state law to spend campaign cash to pay their criminal defense attorneys, effectively giving former House Speaker Michael Madigan permission to continue to tap political war chests engorged by his biggest donor — Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

No single person or labor union has donated more to Madigan than the $10.17 million that our billionaire governor stuffed into former Illinois Democratic Party boss' political war chests in 2018.

Since then, Pritzker has gone from being the jolly beneficiary of Madigan's legislative might to desperately trying to distance himself from the indicted political boss in every which way — from kicking the former House Speaker's wife off the Illinois Art Council to "accepting the resignations" of top Illinois Tollway officials he appointed after a Madigan-connected lobbyist now under indictment on corruption charges vouched for them.

But when you follow the money trail there's no erasing that fact that Pritzker's deep pockets helped make the Madigan political enterprise flush with cash like never before, even as the FBI's massive political corruption probe subpoenaed and indicted members of the former House Speaker's inner circle.

Let's put that in perspective.

After Pritzker's 2018 election win, for instance, the Madigan-controlled Democratic Majorityfund had a post-election surplus of $3.3 million in Dec. 2018. That's a whopping $2.7 million more cash on hand than the fund's surplus following the 2014 gubernatorial elections, state records show.

Similarly, the Democratic Party of Illinois campaign fund that Madigan also controlled ended 2018 with a $1.35 million surplus — about $1.1 million more in cash on hand than was left after the 2014 November elections.

Meanwhile, the Southwest Side Democrat's "Friends of Michael J. Madigan" campaign fund, which had never topped $3.4 million in reporting period pre-Pritzker, swelled to $13.4 million by December 2020, two months before Madigan resigned as state Democratic Party boss.

FRIENDS OF MICHAEL J. MADIGAN CANDIDATE COMMITTEE

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Campaign records show that between Jan. 18 and Feb. 19, 2021, Madigan's "friends" fund paid $2.67 million to the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, home to the former speaker's criminal defense attorney, Sheldon T. Zenner, who was named a 2022 "Super Lawyer" in Illinois.

And by the end of 2021, more than $10.5 million in the Friends of Madigan war chest remained at the disposal of the indicted political boss to fund what is undoubtedly his No. 1 priority: staying out of jail for as long as possible.

And Madigan won't have to dip into his personal piggy bank.

Which, as the Illinois Supreme Court has decided, is completely legal in America's most corrupt state.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots.

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