Seven years in the past nearly to the future, Alaina Hampton despatched a personal letter to then-Area Speaker Michael Madigan about sexual harassment from a co-worker that changed into a turning level in Madigan’s record-setting reign.
“I do not want to hurt any of you — I care very deeply about people involved,” she wrote within the letter, which she nearest made nation. “I only needed to tell you because it has been very painful to experience alone.”
The letter prompt a sequence response that weakened Madigan’s clutch on the Area Democratic caucus, which started to query how he treated sexual harassment problems.
Future Madigan himself was once no longer accused of sexual misconduct, the lingering fallout mixed with federal prosecutors naming him “Public Official A” of their burgeoning investigation in the end price him caucus assistance for the speakership and ended in his departure in early 2021.
On Monday, Hampton, a marketing campaign employee as soon as thought to be a emerging big name on Madigan’s staff, is predicted to come back head to head with the dethroned speaker when she testifies in his landmark trial, the place his group’s try with #MeToo scandals has transform entrance and middle for the jury.
Future Hampton’s testimony shall be restricted and the jury is not going to pay attention proof of her explicit allegations of sexual harassment, she will do business in nitty-gritty insights of ways the speaker managed his political and govt operations, together with how he disbursed marketing campaign budget to make a choice applicants.
In going through off along with her latter boss, Hampton’s tale will come complete circle, including a layer of top drama into an ordeal the place the finishing has but to be written.
Hampton’s testimony may also be a reminder of one of the vital wilder facets of Madigan’s downfall: that next a long time of meticulous keep watch over, the speaker’s #MeToo while opened up presen the FBI had wiretapped the cell phone of his closest confidant, Michael McClain, letting them list all of the frustration, paranoia and political implosion in actual moment.
“This is too constant,” McClain lamented in regards to the reputedly unending accusations on one wiretapped name performed for the jury final date, announcing it’s “just gonna keep goin’.”
Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for many years as speaker of the Illinois Area and the pinnacle of the climate Democratic Birthday party, faces racketeering fees alleging he ran his climate and political operations like a legal endeavor, scheming with use giants ComEd and AT&T to place his cronies on agreements requiring slight or deny paintings and the usage of his nation place to drum up industry for his personal legislation company.
Each Madigan and McClain, 77, a former ComEd assurance lobbyist from downstate Quincy who could also be charged with racketeering, have pleaded no longer responsible and denied wrongdoing.
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A number of the schemes alleged by means of prosecutors was once a 2018 plan organized by means of McClain to ship cash to Kevin Quinn, the Madigan lieutenant who were compelled out for harassing Hampton. A relied on circle would ship Quinn bills as he sought alternative paintings, in line with prosecutors, with Madigan’s wisdom.
However to steer clear of prejudicing the jury, the pass judgement on has barred point out of the precise explanation why Quinn was once shorten let go. In lieu, when the subject of testimony became to Quinn final date, Laborer U.S. Legal professional Julia Schwartz learn a moderately sanitized stipulation that didn’t even point out Hampton’s involvement.
“In November 2017, Michael Madigan was informed of allegations of misconduct against Kevin Quinn,” she learn. “As a result of these allegations, Kevin Quinn was terminated from his position in February 2018.”
Now 35, Hampton works as a political advisor, together with for Cook dinner County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, Cook dinner County Commissioner Bridget Degnan and stream faculty board candidate Ellen Rosenfeld.
Along with her court docket look pending, Hampton declined remark for this tale.
Swiss Military knife?
It’s most likely a twist of irony that the girl who helped defuse Madigan’s energy will testify at his trial — however no longer in regards to the accusations that undercut him.
The truth that prosecutors sought after to name Hampton as a observer in any respect was once no longer publicly discoverable till the primary future of trial final life, when Madigan’s legal professionals raised an alarm over what she may say and accused prosecutors of seeking to do an “end run” across the pass judgement on’s earlier ruling proscribing testimony about sexual harassment.
As lately as final date, protection legal professionals once more introduced unsuccessful last-ditch efforts to get testimony about Quinn thrown out of the case.
Hampton could be a “Swiss Army knife” of a observer, Madigan legal professional Todd Pugh instructed the pass judgement on Wednesday, in that prosecutors need her to testify about many various facets of the speaker’s operation.
The then future, Pugh argued that concealing bills to any person accused of misconduct is “completely different” from hiding bribes.
Laborer U.S. Legal professional Amarjeet Bhachu identified, then again, that the indictment in particular accuses McClain of abetting the legal endeavor by means of concealing the actual nature of bills to Madigan allies.
“This is dead bang within the allegations of Count 1. No question about it,” Bhachu stated, including that he had a “problem” with the lateness of the objection since prosecutors had disclosed their intentions again in March.
U.S. District Pass judgement on John Robert Blakey correct, discovering that the Quinn subject was once “essentially a reward to help associates of the enterprise who ran into trouble,” which is “squarely within” the racketeering allegations.
How a lot Hampton is in a position to inform jurors about Madigan’s operations shall be the point of interest of political intrigue, however obviously Madigan’s staff is cautious of her testimony.
She is aware of what it was once love to paintings infrequently inside of Madigan’s thirteenth Ward Southwest Aspect headquarters and the way the speaker’s staff deployed marketing campaign staff to knock on doorways for lengthy hours.
She additionally may just recap how she was once assigned to be an aide to then-Rep. Silvana Tabares, who now’s the twenty third Ward alderman, however nonetheless reported weekly to Marty Quinn, the Madigan farmland common.
If requested, she may just inform jurors how the Madigan staff helped her get a role at a Chicago Heights economic expansion group that was once run by means of political allies who made it simple for her to be to be had for marketing campaign paintings each time she was once wanted.
Every other department ripe for prosecutors to discover could be Hampton’s moment as a marketing campaign supervisor for Julia Stratton in a a hit 2016 number one problem in opposition to incumbent South Aspect Democratic Rep. Ken Dunkin, who had aligned himself on key votes with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, Madigan’s political nemesis.
The main race changed into a proxy struggle between Madigan and Rauner, surroundings an eye-popping Illinois Area number one spending list of greater than $6 million.
Despite the fact that all the political global considered them as the principle avid gamers, each Madigan and Rauner subtly performed i’m sick the zeitgeist of a significant showdown between the two partisan enemies.
Madigan’s troops fell in order: Instead than pouring cash into Madigan’s hefty marketing campaign conflict chests to exit round, 11 Area Democratic incumbents despatched maximum of a $560,000 chew of money immediately to Stratton.
Madigan allies in hard work additionally poured in assistance for Stratton.
Two years nearest, Stratton moved directly to be JB Pritzker’s working mate in his 2018 bid for governor, and Hampton made a tone to run the Area Democratic marketing campaign for Stratton’s possible Area successor.
When Hampton was once frozen out, she alleged Madigan’s camp retaliated for her calling out Kevin Quinn.
“I basically lost everything I worked for because some guy could not control himself,” Hampton stated when the Tribune first instructed her tale.
Fresh path for trial
The trial, which started with jury variety on Oct. 8, is getting into its 3rd date of testimony and has accrued steam next a gradual get started.
Future a lot of the testimony has been a rehash of the similar “ComEd Four” bribery trial final age, the place McClain and 3 others had been convicted within the plot to bribe Madigan, prosecutors final date started enjoying a number of never-before-heard recorded screams dealing in particular with the sexual harassment scandal.
Prosecutors are presenting the fallout inside the speaker’s political group as proof of the lengths that Madigan’s infantrymen would move to give protection to the boss, and to turn Madigan had the willingness and gear to lend a comfortable touchdown for any person alike to him who was once in bother.
Future it ultimately changed into a nation spectacle, the talk started privately. In February 2017, Hampton reported to thirteenth Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, a handpicked Madigan acolyte, that his more youthful brother Kevin were harassing her for months.
The badgering integrated a constant anecdote of texts during which Quinn requested Hampton to move out with him, together with one announcing he noticed a Fb image of her in a bikini and describing her as “smoking hot.”
She time and again became i’m sick Quinn’s advances, seeking to giggle him off to start with but additionally nearest despatched him a blunt message: “I need you to stop…. I’m not interested. I just want to do my work.”
The alderman talked to his brother and the messages opposed. But if Marty Quinn requested Hampton if she sought after to tied Madigan’s elite group of precinct captains, she didn’t need to chance taking to conferences the place she may keep up a correspondence with Kevin Quinn once more.
“I was terrified,” Hampton has recounted in the past.
In April 2017, she all of a sudden left Madigan’s group and joined the marketing campaign of Marie Newman, who was once working within the Democratic number one in opposition to U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, whose father, BIll, was once an established congressman, ward boss and Madigan best friend.
It wasn’t till seven months nearest, when she was once taking a look to rejoin the speaker’s political staff, that Hampton determined to put in writing to Madigan, sending a handwritten letter to his house to construct certain he’d see it, and explaining in shiny quality the explanations she left.
With Hampton’s November 2017 letter hitting his mailbox on the peak of the nationwide #MeToo motion, Madigan assigned one in all his relied on attorneys, Heather Wier Vaught, to analyze her allegations. The 2 met at a Loop espresso store and hugged on the finish in their dialogue however got here away with other perspectives of the then steps.
By way of February 2018, Hampton was once unhappy with the travel. It wasn’t till she ready to come back ahead publicly that Kevin Quinn was once quietly driven out. On Feb. 12, the future next she’d sat i’m sick for an unique interview with the Tribune, Madigan’s administrative center blasted out a press shed in regards to the allegations and Quinn’s ouster, nevertheless it didn’t title Hampton.
Regardless that the exit had the makings of Madigan making an attempt to get forward of a tale, aides stated they had been ignorant of the Tribune interview.
“In November,” Madigan’s commentary stated, “a courageous woman made me aware that a high-ranking individual within my political operation had previously made unwanted advances and sent her inappropriate text messages.”
Madigan stated Wier Vaught’s investigation had concluded Quinn “engaged in inappropriate conduct and failed to exercise the professional judgment I expect of those affiliated with my political organizations and the office of the speaker.”
As Tribune headlines clear her tale, Hampton referred to as a information convention the then future. She nearest filed a federal lawsuit claiming she was once unjustly blackballed and reached a $275,000 agreement with 4 of Madigan’s political committees. Many of the cash going to pay for attorneys and alternative bills.
The scandal spirals
If Madigan concept he’d performed a hit injury keep watch over, it temporarily changed into sunny the problems inside of his group went some distance past Kevin Quinn.
Complaint instantly emerged in regards to the speaker’s talent to restrain sexual harassment amongst various notoriously misbehaving aides and alike allies.
The consistent drip of allegations wore i’m sick his status with Area Democrats, particularly amongst ladies, well-known to once-unthinkable requires him to step i’m sick from his position as speaker.
By way of some distance the largest trifle away. to Madigan’s group got here in June 2018 with the toppling of his longtime well-known of workforce, Tim Mapes, who was once accused by means of a feminine staffer of sexual harassment over a number of years and of fostering “a culture of sexism, harassment and bullying that creates an extremely difficult working environment.”
Mapes, who additionally served as Area clerk and govt director of the climate Democratic Birthday party, denied the allegations. However inside of hours, Madigan introduced at a Chicago information convention he’d shorten Mapes let go from all 3 positions.
On a recorded name the future Mapes resigned, lobbyist Will Cousineau, a former political level guy for Madigan within the Area, sighed closely a number of instances as he talked with McClain about hiring a situation control staff to attempt to restrain the bleeding.
“Have you talked to Tim?” Cousineau requested McClain at one level. McClain spoke back that to this point, he’d simplest texted “back and forth” with Mapes.
“I’ve got calls of course into Madigan, but, uh, he’s on lockdown at home, and I figured that if he wants to talk, he’ll call me,” McClain stated.
In the meantime, the jury has no longer heard that Kevin Quinn was once accused of sexual harassment — simply that he was once fired on account of an allegation of “wrongdoing.”
Closing date, prosecutors started enjoying a layout of wiretapped recordings appearing that in spite of the Madigan staff’s nation statements, there was once a behind-the-scenes struggle happening to kick Quinn some cash in his moment of want.
However they sought after to hold it quitness.
The plan, as McClain put it to Cousineau on one August 2018 name, was once to contract a couple of relied on nation to pay Quinn $1,000 a life each and every for 6 months, or till he was once in a position to seek out every other activity.
“And as far as I’m concerned, except for the people signing on, no one else even knows about it except for our friend,” McClain stated, the usage of his ubiquitous code phrases for the speaker.
Prosecutors then date plan to play games every other name from nearest that life during which McClain allegedly gave a travel record immediately to Madigan. Consistent with court docket information that quote the decision, McClain instructed the speaker he had “put four or five people together that are willing to contribute to, uh, help with monthly things for the next six months like I mentioned to ya for (Quinn).”
McClain requested Madigan if he sought after to say it to Quinn’s brother, Ald. Marty Quinn, or “stay out of it.”
“I think I oughta stay out of it,” Madigan allegedly spoke back.
Mins next striking up with the speaker, McClain allegedly referred to as the alderman, who additionally stated he would “rather stay in the dark,” in line with court docket information.
The Tribune has reported that vault information display greater than $30,000 in assessments had been despatched to Quinn founding in 2018 from Madigan allies or entities they had been related to, together with McClain, Cousineau and 3 alternative use lobbyists: former Democratic Rep. John Bradley, former Madigan workforce political director Tom Cullen and Mike Alvarez, a former member of the Metropolitan Aqua Reclamation District.
In a decision performed for jurors final date, McClain instructed Cousineau that it wasn’t simply Quinn: Each so incessantly, he stated, Madigan would ask him to quietly take charge of nation.
“At one point in time I had uh, maybe five consultants working for me,” McClain stated. “And, and all they ever really did is give me pieces of paper.”
That, prosecutors have stated, was once in part a connection with McClain serving to funnel bills from ComEd to another Madigan best friend — an allegation on the middle of the racketeering case. The items of paper had been for tax functions, one thing to turn the IRS in case of an audit, in line with prosecutors.
In that very same name, McClain instructed Cousineau that Michael Kasper, an established legal professional for Madigan’s group, had instructed him the “draft is done” on an inside investigation into Quinn’s misdeeds, “and it doesn’t look too bad.”
“So um, so I decided until that investigation comes out, it’s gonna be real hard to find the guy a job,” McClain stated, giggling.
“Agreed, agreed,” Cousineau spoke back.
