‘We’ll protect the boss’: Perjury trial kicks off for Madigan’s chief of staff, but defense says no evidence he lied

An attorney for Michael Madigan’s longtime chief of staff on Wednesday likened his 2021 visit to a federal grand jury to a trip to a high school reunion — featuring a pop quiz in which failure results in a felony. 

“Tim Mapes did not lie in the grand jury,” defense attorney Katie Hill argued as Mapes’ perjury trial began in earnest. “He did not attempt to obstruct justice.”

And, she said, the trial jury he now faces will not hear any direct evidence that Mapes knew and remembered the things he was asked about before the grand jury March 31, 2021. 

It amounted to the fullest defense yet of Mapes, who served for two decades as a top aide to Madigan, Illinois’ once-powerful former House speaker. Mapes testified for hours in 2021 and was asked more than 650 questions by prosecutors, records show.

Federal prosecutors have charged Mapes with perjury for allegedly lying on seven occasions during that visit to the grand jury. The questions on those occasions revolved around work that had been done by another Springfield insider, Michael McClain, for Madigan.

Mapes is also charged with attempted obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to block the feds’ aggressive investigation of Madigan and McClain, who both now face criminal charges.

Following opening statements from Hill and Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur, former state Rep. Greg Harris took the stand as the trial’s first witness. Harris, a Democrat who served two terms as House majority leader, began his testimony by offering basic information about the Illinois General Assembly. Harris’ testimony was expected to continue Wednesday after a lunch break.

Harris took the stand after U.S. District Judge John Kness ruled prosecutors could not play for jurors a secretly recorded November 2018 call between Harris and McClain. In it, McClain allegedly encouraged Harris to speak to Madigan about Harris’ interest in becoming majority leader. Kness found it irrelevant.

Earlier Wednesday, MacArthur kicked off opening statements in the trial by quoting Mapes’ own words — in which he allegedly said, “we’ll protect the boss.”

“I always try to protect him. I mean, that’s my goal,” Mapes allegedly said. “… We’ll protect the boss and so will you. That’s what you gotta remember.”

When MacArthur finished, Hill stepped up to speak on Mapes’ behalf. She told jurors to imagine being forced to take a pop quiz on their way into their high school reunion.

“The test is full of questions about your life from that time period,” Hill said. “Who was elected class president your junior year? What was the name of that guy your best friend had a crush on when you were a freshman? What color was the corsage you wore to prom?”

Hill later turned to the reputations Madigan and McClain had in Springfield — where people assumed McClain spoke for Madigan. But she said Madigan was not “free-flowing” with information. And when information is not free-flowing, she said, “folklore takes its place.” And she said McClain “leaned into this folklore.”

Meanwhile, for someone like Mapes, she said, “there was no need to rely on folklore or common knowledge.” Hill said Mapes had rare direct access to Madigan, and “would not have considered what McClain said to be the gospel truth about what Madigan actually said or wanted.”

During his testimony, Harris described McClain as a “good friend and confidant of the speaker” and said people in Springfield assumed McClain “had the speaker’s ear.”

Prosecutors are expected to largely use secret FBI recordings of McClain’s phone calls to undermine Mapes’ grand jury testimony.

McClain was convicted along with three others earlier this year for a conspiracy to bribe Madigan. He and Madigan are also charged with racketeering conspiracy in a separate case, and they face trial in April.