SCOTUS Bribery Ruling Offers Chance to Undo Illinois Convictions

A recent US Supreme Court opinion has upended two highly publicized Illinois public-corruption cases involving former state House Speaker Mike Madigan (D), prompting the convicted felons’ lawyers to seek acquittals or new trials.

The high court held last month in Snyder v. United States that while federal law punishes state and local officials who accept bribes promised or provided before an official act takes place, it doesn’t make it illegal for those same officials to accept gratuities and “tokens of appreciation” after official acts occur. States may enact their own laws on gratuities if they choose, the high court ruled.

A day after the decision was announced, Northern District of Illinois Judge John Robert Blakey requested lawyers in the case update him in writing on the case’s trajectory. And on Tuesday, lawyers in another corruption case, U.S. v. McClain, told Judge Manish Shah that Snyder means they’ll file new motions to acquit—or barring that, seek new trials for four defendants convicted in 2023 of conspiring to solicit and accept goods and services to curry favor with Madigan.

“We believe the court will have to vacate the conviction and give us a new trial,” Patrick Cotter, a lawyer for defendant Michael McClain, said in an interview. The Snyder decision held federal law criminalizes only bribery where agreements are reached prior to official acts taking place and not—as the government contended in the McClain trial—the acceptance of a gratuity, Cotter said.

The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the bribery and gratuities statute means “our jury was given the wrong law and literally convicted us of something that’s not illegal,” Cotter said.

Gratuities

Madigan’s lawyers told Blakey in a Monday filing they will file pretrial motions related to the Snyder decision by July 18, while prosecutors told the judge they won’t change their allegations against Madigan by filing a superseding indictment. Neither side asked Blakey to change the scheduled Oct. 8 trial date.

Even if the court vacates the convictions in McClain, all four defendants were also convicted on additional counts that included falsifying books and records under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the government argued. “The guidelines range for those charges are substantial,” the government’s brief in the case asserted. “So it is nothing more than wishful thinking that those convictions are in jeopardy.”

Rachel Cannon, a former federal prosecutor and Steptoe LLP partner, said the government many times brings several charges against defendants precisely so some may survive if others are invalidated after trial.

"[T]he false books and records counts, those are probably more black and white than the bribery and gratuity provisions,” she said. "[D]efendants may have an uphill battle showing that all eight of the convictions should be wiped out.”

But the defense might push back against that reasoning, arguing Snyder “tainted all of the evidence and the jury instructions such that the cumulative effect of the prejudice requires the defendants to get a completely new trial,” she said.

Other Madigan scandal prosecutions could resume soon. In addition to McClain, the jury convicted Jay Doherty, a former consultant for Exelon Corp. subsidiary Commonwealth Edison; former ComEd executive John Hooker, a former ComEd executive; and former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore.

The four defendants were scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 11, but Shah postponed their sentencing when the Supreme Court accepted the Snyder appeal.

The cases are U.S. v. Madigan, N.D. Ill., No. 1:22-cr-00115, filing 7/8/24 and U.S. v. McClain, N.D. Ill., No. 1:20-cr-00812, hearing 7/9/24.