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Federal prosecutors for the first time have detailed wiretapped conversations capturing Tim Mapes, the indicted former chief of staff to ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan, discussing issues central to the federal investigation that rocked Illinois state government — from how to handle a burgeoning sexual harassment scandal to Mapes’ ouster from the speaker’s team and his startling encounter with the FBI.
The 65-page filing Tuesday comes as prosecutors are seeking to play many of the recordings at Mapes’ trial next month on charges he lied to a federal grand jury investigating Madigan and his relationship with longtime confidant Michael McClain.
Included in the filing are excerpted transcripts of a call in which Mapes allegedly talked to McClain about being approached by the FBI in 2019 and how he later shared a memo he wrote about the encounter with one of Madigan’s criminal defense attorneys. The feds say Mapes lied about it to the grand jury to protect Madigan.
Other calls detailed in the filing show Mapes’ apparent knowledge of a Chinatown land deal at the heart of the racketeering indictment filed last year against Madigan and McClain, as well as Mapes’ close relationships with Madigan’s family, including Madigan’s wife, Shirley, and son Andrew.
The calls also demonstrated how Madigan and McClain frequently fretted over any threat to Madigan’s speakership, the core of his political power. McClain worried as early as 2018 that the sexual harassment scandal involving Madigan’s misbehaving aides may cost him the post he held for all but two years between 1983 and 2021.
Mapes is set to go to trial Aug. 7 at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse as part of wide-ranging federal case involving Madigan and many members of his inner-circle who were key power players in state government for years. Madigan is expected to go on trial next year.
Mapes is charged with lying during a March 31, 2021 appearance before the federal grand jury when prosecutors say he didn’t answer truthfully when he was asked about Madigan’s relationship with McClain, a former state representative and longtime Springfield lobbyist who was among Madigan’s closest confidants.
McClain was convicted in May of orchestrating a bribery scheme by one of his top lobbying clients, utility giant Commonwealth Edison, to shower money on Madigan’s associates in exchange for the speaker’s help with legislation in Springfield.
The indictment against Mapes also alleged Mapes lied when he said he had no knowledge McClain had communicated with two unnamed state representatives in 2018 on Madigan’s behalf.
The Tribune reported that those two are state Rep. Bob Rita of Blue Island and former state Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie, both of whom testified for the prosecution at the “ComEd Four” trial, which ended in May with the convictions of McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Prammagiore, lobbyist John Hooker, and consultant and former City Club of Chicago head Jay Doherty.
In May 2018, McClain and Mapes had a series of calls discussing rumors that Lang, a longtime Madigan ally, allegedly harassed a female activist and discussed how to mitigate the damage those allegations might have on the speaker, according to the filing.
“Let me put you on with the boss. Okay?” Mapes told McClain, according to the filing. “So you’re going to inform him what you know and go from there.”
“This call demonstrates as clear as day that Mapes knew McClain communicated with Madigan in 2018, because Mapes sets up that conversation,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diane MacArthur and Julia Schwartz wrote in the filing. “It also is an example of McClain working for Madigan, helping get information to him about a brewing sexual harassment scandal.”
Mapes lost his public positions as Madigan’s chief of staff and House clerk later in 2018, when a staffer accused Mapes of sexual harassment over several years and fostering “a culture of sexism, harassment and bullying that creates an extremely difficult working environment.”
On Jan. 24, 2019, six months after stepping down, Mapes was approached by FBI agents from the Springfield office as part of an unrelated investigation, according to the filing. Mapes prepared a memo concerning the contact, which he testified about to the grand jury, the filing stated.
In a recorded phone call three weeks later, Mapes told McClain about a conversation he had with Madigan’s attorney, Sheldon Zenner, regarding the FBI meeting, the filing stated. Mapes said he’d given Zenner the memo per a “request,” and that he was told to “report back in” to McClain.
At the end of the call with McClain, Mapes again said, “I’m just reporting in.” Prosecutors said Mapes was “clearly showing that he was intending to keep McClain in the loop, so that Madigan too could be kept in the loop” about the FBI meeting.
Mapes testified in the grand jury that he showed Zenner the memo in 2019 “only for informational purposes and because (Zenner) was a former assistant U.S. attorney,” the prosecution filing said.
“Mapes also said he didn’t ask McClain to pass any messages to Madigan about Mapes’ meeting with the FBI in 2019,” the filing on Tuesday said. “This testimony was false and misleading.”
Zenner, who is one of the lead defense attorneys on Madigan’s racketeering case, declined to comment.
Mapes is one of the closest advisers from Madigan’s extremely small circle of trusted associates to face federal charges. He has denied wrongdoing, saying he was confused by the questions in the grand jury and that federal authorities were squeezing him to give up incriminating information on Madigan.
His indictment in May 2021 caught many by surprise, particularly since he was granted immunity from prosecution by the U.S. attorney’s office. He was warned by the chief judge before his testimony before the grand jury that failing to answer truthfully could result in criminal charges against him.
Mapes’ attorneys have said in court filings that their defense will include that Madigan “kept information close to the vest” and “kept private conversations with others private,” and that McClain “often talked mysteriously, cryptically, and oddly — including about and when referring to Madigan.”
Mapes was asked more than 650 questions over hours of testimony that day, and Mapes did his best to answer truthfully, his lawyers said in a motion filed last year.
In his testimony, Mapes gave “high-level examples” of McClain passing along pieces of information providing his “perspective” to Madigan on “various matters,” Mapes attorney Andrew Porter stated in the motion last year.
But when questions turned to Mapes’ recollection of specific phone calls and dates, his memory was admittedly hazy, his lawyers said.
At one point, immediately before one of the answers that prosecutors say was a lie, Mapes told the grand jury he had no recollection of an event, but could come back to it later if he was shown something and it “pops my memory,” the motion stated.
“The prosecutor did not follow up on any of these matters — nor did the prosecutor attempt to refresh Mr. Mapes’ recollection on any specific subject matters that could ‘pop’ Mr. Mapes’ memory,” Porter said.
Porter declined to comment Tuesday.
Prosecutors took particular aim at Mapes’ effort to exclude recorded conversations and other evidence about legislative efforts to transfer ownership of land in Chinatown from the state to the city, which was one focus of the grand jury investigation.
In a recorded call on May 30, 2018, McClain told Mapes the Chinatown bill was one of his “assignments” from the speaker when Mapes was still in charge of legislation brought in the House, according to prosecutors.
The Chinatown transfer legislation is “relevant to Mapes’ perjury and attempted obstruction trial because it is an example of an assignment McClain performed for Madigan that Mapes knew about,” prosecutors said.
Madigan and McClain were indicted in March 2022 on racketeering conspiracy charges alleging a range of corruption schemes spanning more than a decade, including the scheme involving ComEd and a separate deal to help developers in Chinatown purchase a parcel of state-owned land. A superseding indictment included bribery-related charges involving AT&T. Both Madigan and McClain have pleaded not guilty.
The government contended the “sheer volume” of calls between Mapes and McClain showed their close relationship, including when Mapes got fired on June 6, 2018 after a House staffer accused him of repeated sexual harassment, harassment and bullying — allegations Mapes has denied.
In a “deeply personal call” the day Mapes was ousted, McClain told Mapes he loved him and that “you’re the only person’s made me cry,” according to the filing. The two men described the staffer’s allegations as “goofy accusations.”
Prosecutors said McClain later told Mapes he was “a little put out with” Madigan for the way he treated Mapes, and that he was thinking of telling the speaker, “I never thought you would be the one to leave the fox hole.”
Overall, 2018 was the year Madigan faced a #MeToo reckoning that first weakened his grip on the speakership, starting in February with allegations from a former campaign aide, Alaina Hampton. She accused one of Madigan’s top aides, Kevin Quinn, of sexual harassment. Madigan then ousted Kevin Quinn, the brother of Madigan’s 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, from the then-speaker’s state government and political operations.
At the end of the legislative spring 2018 session, an advocate of legalizing medical marijuana accused Lang, a Skokie Democrat, of sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation. Lang immediately denied the allegations — which would later be found unsubstantiated by a legislative inspector general — but he stepped down from his role on Madigan’s leadership team and on key committees. Evidence in the recently completed ComEd Four trial found McClain, on behalf of Madigan, asked Lang to give up his House seat and that Lang eventually did.
But only a week after the allegations against Lang arose in late May 2018, Mapes was accused of the improper behavior toward the subordinate, and Madigan dumped Mapes as his chief of staff, House clerk and executive director of the Madigan-run state Democratic Party.
Madigan authorized a review of his operations by former state executive inspector general Maggie Hickey, the same former federal prosecutor whose report on hazing prompted Northwestern University this week to fire longtime football coach Pat Fitzgerald.
In the filing Tuesday, prosecutors said McClain informed Mapes a full month after his ouster that the speaker was sending Mapes’ replacement as chief of staff to Washington, D.C., to meet with “MeToo” organizations that stand up against sexual harassment in workplaces.
“McClain said their goal was to ‘protect the boss,’” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
Prosecutors are also seeking to play a recorded call at trial where Mapes allegedly acted as an intermediary in discussing plans for McClain to meet Madigan and his son for a dinner.
While Mapes’ attorneys have argued the conversation is irrelevant to the charges and should be kept out of the trial, prosecutors contend “calls like this one are unquestionably relevant to show that Mapes knew of McClain’s role within Madigan’s orbit in 2018.”
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