More democrat corruption, this time another chairperson of the Democratic Party Mike Madigan, American politician from Illinois and the Chair of the Illinois Democratic Party, facing charges of racketeering, bribery, and criminal enterprise, claims his bribes were "100% legal" and were for the purpose of “building trust and maintaining and increasing access to Mike Madigan.”https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/10/22/madigan-co-defendants-lawyer-tells-jury-legal-lobbying-is-not-bribery-says-feds-view-just-wrong/lawyer for ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan’s longtime confidant told a federal jury Tuesday that the allegations of bribery and corruption against the pair attempt to criminalize legal lobbying and relationship building at the center of the state’s politics.“The evidence will show Mike McClain was a lobbyist, and like all lobbyists, (he) understood if you want to get access to a politician you need to develop a relationship of trust,” defense attorney John Mitchell told the jury in his opening statement.Mitchell likened lobbying to sales, saying it’s all about the “hope” of getting a meeting, having that relationship. Bribery, he said, is an exchange, an envelope of cash for a vote.“A good lobbyist builds good positive relationships with elected officials,” Mitchell said. “If you don’t have access to a politician, you have no hope of convincing them.”He said McClain did “perfectly 100% legal favors for Mike Madigan” for the purpose of “building trust and maintaining and increasing access to Mike Madigan.”The government’s view of the evidence “is just wrong,” Mitchell told jurors.“They were so focused on Mike Madigan that they missed it,” he said. “He did not act with an attempt to bribe Mike Madigan or help him obtain bribes…He is 100% innocent.”
“There is an old saying if you walk around all day carrying a hammer you are eventually going to find something that looks like a nail,” Mitchell said. “The government wrongly concluded that Mike Madigan is powerful, and therefore he must be corrupt.”Madigan, 82, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise, scheming with utility giants ComEd and AT&T to put his cronies on contracts requiring little or no work and using his public position to drum up business for his private law firm.Both Madigan and McClain, 77, a former ComEd lobbyist, have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.Prosecutors, not surprisingly, have painted a much different picture, telling the jury in their opening statement Monday that Madigan ruthlessly used his perch at the very top of state politics to betray the public trust, increase his power, enrich his friends and line his own pockets.“Madigan abused his power and used the organization he led to engage in a pattern of corrupt conduct over and over and over again,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker told jurors.Alongside Madigan, Streicker said, was McClain, his longtime friend and political ally, who “shielded Madigan, disguising Madigan’s involvement in corrupt activity.”“Together the defendants engaged in a campaign of bribery,” she said. “A campaign of bribery through which they seized opportunities to leverage Madigan’s immense power in Illinois government to seek and accept bribes from people who needed something from the government. … This racket went on for years.”
he's samefagging in his failed threads again
^^ democrat fraudster spotted
>>1355488>The evidence will show Mike McClain was a lobbyist, and like all lobbyists, (he) understood if you want to get access to a politician you need to develop a relationship of trustLol typical democrat politician type. They literally believe that it is essential to a functioning state for them to accept bribes. They earnestly believe that if they did not allow others the privilege of giving them bribes, their municipalities would be worse off
every time someone posts in this thread the paid DNC shill needs to bump his 5
>>1355553Their constituency isn't smart enough to care
>>1355746Why are Democrats like this?
>>1355847Tent life, fentanyl, and Marxism are a hell of a combo
Trailer life, hillbilly heroin, and Trumpism are a hell of a combo for inbred rightards such as >>1355932
>look mom I bumped it again
>>1355938Why do you seem so upset
