In Latest Shocking Turn, McCann Pleads Guilty
Former State Senator Sam McCann speaks to reporters outside of the federal courthouse in Springfield in November. He plead guilty to improper use of campaign funds Thursday. (Photo: Capitol News Illinois)
NOTE: This story was originally posted for subscribers only. To receive subscriber-only newsletters and content, click here.
The latest roller coaster of events in the federal criminal trial of former State Senator and 2018 independent gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann came to a head Thursday as McCann, who had fought charges he misused campaign funds, abruptly pleaded guilty during the prosecution’s case.
Via the State Journal-Register:
McCann made an open plea admitting guilt on seven counts of wire fraud and one count each of money laundering and tax evasion for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal items, such as cars, motor homes and vacations. He also used those funds to pay personal loans and make payments to himself over a five-year period from May 2015 to June 2020.
The change of heart from McCann came after a nearly two-day trial in which federal prosecutors, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Bass, sought to prove he used those campaign funds in an illicit manner.
Testimony was provided from people who contributed to his campaign, such as officials from the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Illinois Education Association, former campaign staffers and even his own mother-in-law, who spoke about payments made to her from his campaign account that she didn't have any knowledge of.
(Disclosure: when I worked on Senate Republican staff, I was assigned to McCann. I advised him a little from 2015-2017, but had no role in his run for Governor in 2018.)
Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield), who replaced McCann in the Senate in 2021, praised the verdict.
“I got into politics because I was concerned that my senator at the time, Sam McCann, was corrupt. Justice was served today as McCann finally took responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty,” McClure said in a statement. “We have to root out corruption in this state at all levels because Illinois deserves better.”
Also coming to light Thursday was a winding 13-minute video posted to McCann’s formerly dormant gubernatorial campaign account on Instagram.
McCann called the charges against him an “ungodly pack of lies,” and that the FBI didn’t begin investigating him until he launched his third party bid for Governor in 2018.
“They wanted me to say that I had joined [former House Speaker Michael] Madigan in some unholy alliance and that we were going to rig an election,” Madigan said in the video. “When I told them that I wouldn’t do that, that it wasn’t the case, that I had no idea what they were talking about, they told me that they would come after me, that they would keep searching and searching and searching until they found something. Until they found everything.”
McCann also accused a top aide to former Governor Bruce Rauner and a Rauner-supporting donor with attempting to bribe him to side with Rauner on at least two different occasions.
He claimed the FBI wasn’t interested in those issues when he brought them up in interviews.
“The FBI, the Assistant U.S. Attorney, the Department of Justice, all the people who we think are keeping us safe at night, these people weren’t interested in the truth of corruption,” McCann said. “They were only interested in a fabrication of corruption against me.”
McCann has been in federal custody since last Friday, so it isn’t clear who posted the video this week. Prosecutors reportedly believed McCann recorded the video in his pickup truck on his way to court last Friday.
We transcribed the video manifesto here. It is too long to post in the newsletter and it is…something. Go check it out.