Former AT&T Illinois boss Paul La Schiazza’s bribery trial may simply have been misplaced within the parade of main public corruption instances at Chicago’s federal courthouse.
However destiny — within the type of the U.S. Supreme Court docket — stepped in, resulting in a six-month delay within the blockbuster racketeering case of the person La Schiazza is accused of bribing: then-Home Speaker Michael Madigan.
Now the highlight is squarely on La Schiazza and his trial starting Tuesday on the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the place he stands accused of a scheme to funnel $22,500 in funds to a Madigan affiliate in trade for the speaker’s assist passing laws vital to the telephone large.
As an alternative of a retread of proof, La Schiazza’s case is now anticipated to supply a sneak preview of a key a part of the ex-speaker’s personal trial, which kicks off Oct. 8.
Among the many new proof can be testimony from former Madigan insider Tom Cullen, a lobbyist who prosecutors allege served as a go-between for the funds from AT&T to former state Rep. Edward Acevedo. One other witness, former AT&T lobbyist Stephen Selcke, is predicted to supply a behind-the-scenes have a look at the utility’s efforts to get in Madigan’s good graces.
Prosecutors additionally need the jury to see e mail exchanges exhibiting Madigan’s son, Andrew, requested La Schiazza to sponsor a nonprofit occasion in July 2017, lower than two weeks after AT&T Illinois’ invoice to finish mandated landline service grew to become legislation, allegedly along with his father’s help.
Andrew Madigan wrote that the concept got here “on the suggestion of our good buddy, Mike McClain,” a former lobbyist and Madigan’s longtime confidant, prosecutors in line with a prosecution submitting earlier this yr. La Schiazza forwarded the request to a colleague within the legislative affairs division on July 12, 2017, writing “this can be limitless,” in line with the submitting.
“I think the ‘thanks’ alternatives can be plentiful,’” the colleague allegedly emailed again, referring to the current passage of AT&T’s coveted landline laws, recognized by the acronym COLR, which was anticipated to avoid wasting the corporate tens of millions of {dollars}.
“Yep,” La Schiazza allegedly responded. “We’re on the family and friends plan now.”
La Schiazza has denied wrongdoing, and in court docket filings his attorneys have laid out a protection centered on two points: whether or not there was any “association” between Madigan and AT&T earlier than the invoice was handed, and whether or not there’s proof La Schiazza thought what he was doing was unlawful.
For example La Schiazza’s mind-set on the time, the protection has pointed to emails the place he allegedly informed underlings that they had “authorized approval” from firm attorneys to “interact Eddie (Acevedo) on this method.”
“The truth that Mr. La Schiazza requested his subordinates to coordinate authorized approval is instantly related to his mind-set in hiring Mr. Acevedo,” his attorneys wrote in a current pretrial submitting.
La Schiazza, 66, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in October 2022 with conspiracy, federal program bribery, and utilizing a facility in interstate commerce to advertise illegal exercise. Probably the most critical counts carry as much as 20 years in jail if convicted. He has pleaded not responsible and has been free on bond whereas his case is pending.
Jury choice within the case is scheduled to begin Tuesday earlier than U.S. District Choose Robert Gettleman, who has mentioned the trial will final about three weeks.
Meaning the jury may get the case at about the identical time Madigan and McClain go on trial on sweeping racketeering conspiracy fees that embody a spread of allegedly corrupt actions, together with the AT&T allegations and the same however a lot bigger scheme by utility large Commonwealth Edison.
Madigan had initially been scheduled to go on trial effectively earlier than La Schiazza, however his case was postponed after the U.S. Supreme Court docket agreed to take up an Indiana case coping with a federal bribery statute charged in Madigan’s indictment.
The excessive court docket’s ruling within the case towards former Portage Mayor James Snyder got here down in late June. It clarified that to show bribery, prosecutors have to indicate there was an settlement forward of time to trade one thing of worth for an official act, not only a “gratuity” or award given to a politician after the very fact.
Whereas the protection in Madigan’s case has argued the Supreme Court docket ruling ought to intestine the indictment towards the previous speaker, it has had little overt impact within the runup to La Schiazza’s trial, because the fees allege the association to pay Acevedo was made earlier than Madigan helped shepherd AT&T’s invoice by the Normal Meeting.
However the protection has pointed to Snyder in attempting to restrict sure ancillary proof from being introduced to the jury — together with the “family and friends plan” e mail chain concerning Andrew Madigan’s donation request.
In asking the decide to bar that proof from trial, La Schiazza’s lead legal professional, Tinos Diamantatos, argued in a pretrial listening to final month that the $2,500 test for Andrew Madigan’s charity was lower in September 2017, effectively after the landline invoice handed, making it an “after-the-fact” request that falls underneath the Supreme Court docket’s pointers about authorized “gratuities.”
Gettleman has but to rule on the difficulty.
Orbiting politics
In contrast to lots of the different figures within the Madigan investigation, La Schiazza involves his trial with a comparatively low profile and little political baggage. Now retired, he and his spouse stay within the seaside city of Newport, Rhode Island, the place they bought a house simply off the famed Bannister’s Wharf in 2020 for $1.1 million, actual property information present.
Final yr, the La Schiazzas bought a second dwelling within the crusing mecca’s historic Level neighborhood for $670,000 that they’re now rehabbing in line with strict preservation rules, information present.
A local of Indianapolis, La Schiazza graduated from Purdue College in 1979 and spent his whole profession within the telecommunications enterprise, first with Indiana Bell and later dealing with regulatory points in a sequence of jobs with SBC Communications and its subsidiary, Ameritech.
Often called a no-nonsense, blunt-talking chief, La Schiazza helped navigate Ameritech and later AT&T by the thicket of presidency regulation and competitors issues that blossomed as mobile phone expertise took off and high-speed web was being rolled out throughout the nation.
By 2001, La Schiazza had risen to president of Ameritech’s Wisconsin division, the place he was on the forefront of a battle by smaller carriers to seize a share of the market after Congress handed the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
At the moment, Ameritech — and La Schiazza — have been accused of taking part in hardball, together with sending a letter that some perceived as a menace to yank funding to organizations that didn’t assist the corporate’s political agenda.
La Schiazza informed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the letter was merely his firm’s effort to achieve out to teams aligned with a corporation that favored tighter rules.
The one actual whiff of political scandal in La Schiazza’s profession got here a yr later, when then-Wisconsin state Sen. Chuck Chvala, the Democratic Senate majority chief, was indicted on fees that included steering marketing campaign money to out-of-state organizations and “impartial” political teams he secretly managed.
Among the many donations at subject within the case have been two $40,000 checks SBC Ameritech wrote to the Democratic Legislative Marketing campaign Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based group that raised cash for state candidates and political motion committees. The DLCC, it turned out, was a main supporter of a PAC secretly run by Chvala.
La Schiazza was quoted in information reviews saying his firm believed the donations weren’t going to return again to Wisconsin, and that there was no hyperlink between the cash and any advantages Ameritech acquired within the Wisconsin Normal Meeting, together with the removing of a tax provision extremely unfavorable to Ameritech within the Senate model of the state finances.
“There by no means was, or can be, or has been, any linkage between a contribution that we make and anticipating any sort of favorable motion in return,” La Schiazza informed the Wisconsin State Journal in December 2002. “It didn’t occur on this case and hasn’t occurred prior to now.”
Chvala wound up pleading responsible to 2 counts and was sentenced in 2005 to 9 months in jail.
A transfer to Illinois
La Schiazza took over as president of AT&T Illinois in 2006, when he was in his mid-40s, settling his household in north suburban Glencoe. Like every large firm in a closely regulated business, AT&T had numerous fires to place out within the Illinois legislature, and La Schiazza was on the forefront of a lot of these battles.
One of many greatest got here in 2017, when the corporate was pushing its laws to finish obligatory landline service. On the time, AT&T had 1.2 million conventional landline clients within the state — 474,000 residential and 725,000 enterprise — and was shedding about 5,000 every week, in line with La Schiazza.
“We’re investing in a expertise that buyers have mentioned they don’t need anymore and squandering precious tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} that could possibly be going to the brand new applied sciences that will do a greater job of serving clients,” La Schiazza informed the Tribune in a Could 2017 interview.
La Schiazza mentioned the corporate’s earlier invoice two years earlier was by no means voted on, however this time round he was “optimistic” that sentiment had shifted towards passage.
In line with the federal indictment, on the time of that interview, the scheme to reward Madigan was already underway.
The settlement to funnel funds to Acevedo, a longtime Madigan acolyte who had retired from the Home to turn out to be a lobbyist, started in February 2017, after the corporate discovered by McClain that the speaker was trying to kick Acevedo some cash, in line with the indictment.
In an e mail trade that March, AT&T Illinois’ director of legislative affairs requested two of the corporate’s executives in the event that they have been “100% sure” they’d get credit score “from the powers that be” if the funds have been made to Acevedo.
“I might hope that so long as we clarify the method to McClain and Acevedo will get the cash then the last word goal is reached,” one of many executives wrote again, in line with an announcement of details AT&T agreed to in court docket.
The legislative affairs director responded, “I don’t suppose (La Schiazza) needs this primarily based on hope. We have to verify previous to executing this technique,” the assertion mentioned.
At McClain’s route, AT&T staff then met with Acevedo to debate a “pretextual” cause for the funds: to “put together a report on the political dynamics of the Normal Meeting’s and Chicago Metropolis Council’s Latino Caucuses,” in line with the assertion of details.
Acevedo by no means did any actual work for AT&T Illinois, nonetheless. The truth is, in line with AT&T’s admissions in court docket, he balked at first on the funds, saying they have been too low. However Acevedo agreed to the deal after McClain stepped in and mentioned the quantity was “ample.”
After a protracted struggle, the landline invoice handed in the course of the ultimate hours of the spring 2017 legislative session — with Madigan’s direct help, in line with legislative information and the assertion of details agreed to by AT&T.
On June 29, 2017, Madigan permitted the invoice to be dropped at a vote and solid his poll in favor of the laws, information present. Two days later, after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the laws, Madigan and the Democrat-led Normal Meeting overrode him, with Madigan once more voting for the override.
In court docket submitting earlier this yr, prosecutors revealed that the landline laws was not the one invoice the place Madigan allegedly helped AT&T. The then-powerful speaker was additionally instantly concerned in “small cell” laws in 2017 that allowed firms similar to AT&T to place up micro-towers on gentle poles and elsewhere in public rights-of-way, in line with the submitting.
That fall, Madigan helped to advance the small cell invoice in the course of the veto session of the Illinois Normal Meeting, and within the spring of 2018, he helped defeat an modification to the laws that will have been dangerous to AT&T’s pursuits, in line with prosecutors.
References to the small cell invoice have been additionally captured in FBI wiretaps, prosecutors alleged. In a name intercepted on Could 16, 2018, for instance, Madigan and McClain mentioned the modification that will have walked again AT&T’s features.
When Madigan requested McClain if he was acquainted with the laws, McClain allegedly responded: “The small cell invoice that, uh, you, you directed me to assist them move it final yr, which I did do,” in line with court docket filings.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Madigan allegedly mentioned.
Prices towards Madigan
Madigan, 82, was the longest serving chief of any legislative chamber within the nation who held an ironclad grip on the state legislature in addition to the Democratic Social gathering and its political spoils. He was dethroned as speaker in early 2021 because the investigation swirled round him, and shortly after resigned the Home seat he’d held since 1971.
Madigan and McClain have been charged in March 2022 within the unique 22-count indictment alleging they conspired to take part in an array of bribery and extortion schemes from 2011 to 2019 that allegedly leveraged Madigan’s elected workplace and political energy for private achieve.
The indictment additionally accused Madigan of illegally soliciting enterprise for his personal property tax legislation agency throughout discussions to show a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown right into a business growth.
Madigan and McClain have pleaded not responsible.
McClain can also be awaiting sentencing in his conviction for bribery conspiracy final yr within the “ComEd 4” case towards him and three different ComEd executives and lobbyists. A decide is predicted to rule within the coming months whether or not the convictions ought to stand given the Supreme Court docket’s current ruling.
Each AT&T and ComEd entered into deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. legal professional’s workplace, admitting their roles within the schemes to affect Madigan in trade for prosecutors dropping legal fees. ComEd additionally agreed to pay a document $200 million wonderful, whereas AT&T was fined $23 million.
Acevedo, in the meantime, pleaded responsible to tax offenses and was sentenced to six months in jail in 2022.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
