More democrat corruption, this time another chairperson of the Democratic Party
Mike Madigan, American politician from Illinois and the Chair of the Illinois Democratic Party, facing charges of racketeering, bribery, and criminal enterprise, claims his bribes were "100% legal" and were for the purpose of “building trust and maintaining and increasing access to Mike Madigan.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/10/22/madigan-co-defendants-lawyer-tells-jury-legal-lobbying-is-not-bribery-says-feds-view-just-wrong/lawyer for ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan’s longtime confidant told a federal jury Tuesday that the allegations of bribery and corruption against the pair attempt to criminalize legal lobbying and relationship building at the center of the state’s politics.
“The evidence will show Mike McClain was a lobbyist, and like all lobbyists, (he) understood if you want to get access to a politician you need to develop a relationship of trust,” defense attorney John Mitchell told the jury in his opening statement.
Mitchell likened lobbying to sales, saying it’s all about the “hope” of getting a meeting, having that relationship. Bribery, he said, is an exchange, an envelope of cash for a vote.
“A good lobbyist builds good positive relationships with elected officials,” Mitchell said. “If you don’t have access to a politician, you have no hope of convincing them.”
He said McClain did “perfectly 100% legal favors for Mike Madigan” for the purpose of “building trust and maintaining and increasing access to Mike Madigan.”
The government’s view of the evidence “is just wrong,” Mitchell told jurors.
“They were so focused on Mike Madigan that they missed it,” he said. “He did not act with an attempt to bribe Mike Madigan or help him obtain bribes…He is 100% innocent.”
