Mike Madigan, the former Illinois House speaker, has been found guilty of 10 counts involving bribery conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud charges on Wednesday.
Madigan, who was also acquitted of several other charges, was convicted on 10 counts in total and acquitted on seven others, bringing an end to a four-month trial that accused him of spearheading a yearslong criminal enterprise that allegedly made him and his political allies richer. Now, all the attention is turning to his wife and family.
Mike Madigan met Shirley in 1976, when the latter was working at a law firm in Chicago, and the two tied the knot shortly thereafter. He adopted her daughter from a previous marriage, and the two later welcomed three more children: Tiffany, Nicole, and Andrew.
All we know about Mike Madigan, his wife, and their family:
Shirley Madigan, served as chair of the Illinois Arts Council since 1983, until she was ousted in March 2022, the same week her husband was hit with a federal indictment on corruption charges.
At the time, the organization said that the decision was made long before news of the indictment came out and that the Arts Council simply wanted to head in a new direction.
As for their daughter Lisa Madigan, who is Mike Madigan's adopted child, he once spoke about their relationship, as reported by WBEZ:
“And my view was that I would treat Lisa as my daughter. And I was not the biological father but I had married Shirley, and I understood at the get go that this was a duo package. And so I just took on the parental responsibilities.”
Lisa Madigan served as the 41st Attorney General of Illinois from 2003-19. Also a lawyer, she is the first woman to ever hold the position. Reflecting on Lisa's biological father, he said at the time, per the outlet:
“I took the phone out of her hands, and her biological father was on the line shouting at her, and the language was so vile that I don’t even want to repeat it, but he was using the F-word as part of his expression."
When asked about what advice he gave Lisa, he said:
"That she never had to see him or talk to him again." He also revealed that her father “liked to send a lot of threatening letters.”
Associated Press has reported that a sentencing date is yet to be scheduled, though Mike Madigan may be looking at significant time behind bars, given that some of the counts he has been convicted of carry a maximum penalty of 20 years.
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