Where It Went Wrong for Mapes
Tim Mapes, former Chief of Staff to then-House Speaker Michael Madigan, leaves the Dirksen Federal Building after being found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice charges Thursday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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In comments from many Democrats, mostly who are speaking off the record, is they can’t believe Tim Mapes would lie to a grand jury over such non-sensical issues.
Mapes, the former Chief of Staff to House Speaker Michael Madigan, was convicted of Perjury and Obstruction of Justice in federal court Thursday.
The questions about why Mapes would lie become even more profound when nearly everyone knew by 2021, when Mapes perjured himself in front of a grand jury, that Michael McClain, the longtime Madigan consigliere who was at the center of the investigation, was almost certainly wiretapped.
Mapes’ lies weren’t to cover up criminal activity. They were almost benign.
Q: OK. Did [McClain], after he retired, kind of give you any insight into what his interactions with [Madigan] were that you weren’t privy to personally?
Mapes: No, that wouldn’t — that wouldn’t happen.
Q: Do you have any reason to think [McClain] was acting as an agent for [Madigan] after he retired in 2016, that is, doing work for him or carrying out assignments for him?
Mapes: I’m not aware of any. I’m not aware of that activity. Let’s put it that way.
Q: So one of the things we were trying to figure out, Mr. Mapes, is whether or not — kind of a key issue for us is whether or not [McClain] acted as an agent for [Madigan] in any respect, including that timeframe. We’re talking about the 2017, 2018, 2019 timeframe. Are you aware of any facts that would help us understand whether or not, in fact, [McClain] acted as an agent or performed work for [Madigan] or took direction from [Madigan] in that timeframe?
Mapes: I don’t know who you would go to other than [Madigan] and [McClain]. [Madigan], if he had people do things for him like I did things for him, was — didn’t distribute information freely.
Prosecutors systematically dismantled Mapes’ assertion that he had forgotten the “couldn’t recall” the conversations when they had piles of tapes of Mapes and McClain discussing the very things he denied to the grand jury.
He attempted to protect Madigan to the end, but for what reason? Madigan had thrown Mapes overboard almost two years earlier in the midst of sexual assault allegations. Why continue to cover for him?
There are questions we may never know the answers to, but his answers to prosecutors questions will cost him his freedom.
We left Mapes a voicemail last Thursday and he did not respond.
One thing worth noting, nearly every Republican statement that hit our inbox yesterday (and there were exactly zero from Democrats) on the conviction was for ethics reform. As a strong advocate of ethics reform, I’ll remind you Mapes isn’t convicted of corruption. He’s convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury, all stemming from after he was fired as Madigan’s Chief of Staff.