Weekend Edition | Ex-Illinois House Speaker Gets 7.5 Year Prison Term, $2.5 Million Fine for Corruption

(The Center Square) – A federal judge sentenced Michael Madigan Friday to seven-and-a-half years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $2.5 million for crimes committed during his tenure as the longest-serving speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Judge John Robert Blakey handed down the 90-month sentence Friday at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. He also imposed three years of supervised release after his prison time ends. Madigan will be required to report to prison on Oct. 13. The judge said it was difficult to reconcile the two recommendations, one from government attorneys and one from the defense. Prosecutors had asked for a 12.5-year prison sentence and a $1.5 million fine. Defense attorneys requested that Madigan be sentenced to a year of home confinement with probation and community service.