Ex-top aide to Madigan lied about McClain connection, kept former House speaker’s team informed about meeting with FBI agents, prosecutors say

CHICAGO — Michael Madigan’s former chief of staff reached out to a defense attorney for the then-powerful Illinois House speaker after he was approached by FBI agents in early 2019, then he called a longtime Madigan confidant and said he was “reporting in,” prosecutors say.

While the feds do not argue those actions by Timothy Mapes were unlawful, they do say it demonstrates “his loyalty” to Madigan and Michael McClain, “and his intentional effort to withhold information” from a federal grand jury in March 2021.

That and other details about the case against Mapes were revealed in a 65-page document filed by prosecutors early Tuesday morning, four weeks ahead of Mapes’ trial on perjury and attempted obstruction of justice charges.

Mapes served for decades as Madigan’s chief of staff until he was ousted in June 2018 amid a string of damning harassment allegations. Those allegations could play a limited role in Mapes’ trial, as they serve as the backdrop to many secretly recorded conversations the feds want to play for jurors.

Mapes told a grand jury in March 2021 that he did not recall being told if McClain did any work for Madigan between 2017 and 2019. But prosecutors contend the “close relationship” between Mapes and McClain, as well as their “consistent communications,” show that “Mapes could not have forgotten the critical role McClain played in Madigan’s political operation.”