Tim Mapes, who spent two decades as the chief of staff to Illinois’ once-powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan, has been convicted of perjury and attempted obstruction of justice in federal court.

Jurors found that Mapes lied on every occasion identified by federal prosecutors. Mapes seemed to display no reaction to the verdict, appearing to check his phone quickly afterward.

Mapes had no comment as he hurriedly left the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, only to be met with a swarm of cameras as he walked from Dearborn to Jackson.

His sentencing was set for Jan. 10, though the judge acknowledged it could change. He faces a maximum of 5 years for perjury and a maximum of 20 for attempted obstruction.

Illinois Republicans across the board hailed the latest in a string of federal convictions — and blasted Democrats for failing to enact more stringent ethics laws.

“We have had too many glaring reminders that we must eliminate bad actors, self-serving politicians, and corruption from our statehouse, and this is just another verdict to prove it,” Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna said in a statement. “It would be appalling if Speaker Welch did not move forward legislation House Republicans have filed to address ethics and instill public trust in our government.”

But Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch — Madigan’s replacement — dismissed that criticism and defended ethics reforms passed in 2021.

“In addition to electing a new speaker, hiring a new chief of staff and building a new, diverse leadership team, the House recently passed comprehensive ethics reform, which Republicans voted against, and hired a new legislative inspector general who has a reputation of tenacity and independence,” the Hillside Democrat’s spokesperson said. “Speaker Welch has always said he believes in due process, and a guilty verdict is a signal the law is working. However, if the minority leader has any ideas on how to strengthen federal perjury laws, we’re all ears.”

A spokesman for Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the second-term governor “has been clear about the need to root out corruption and instill transparency and honesty at every level of state government. The verdict advances the cause of cleaning up state government and sends a message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in Illinois. This administration demands a high level of integrity in public service and will accept nothing less.”

Prosecutors said Mapes lied on multiple occasions when he appeared before a grand jury on March 31, 2021. They say he did so in a corrupt attempt to block an aggressive criminal investigation of Madigan, Illinois’ once-powerful former House speaker.

The seven queries at issue in his perjury count all revolved around work done for Madigan by another Springfield insider, Michael McClain. Mapes was also charged with attempted obstruction of justice.

Madigan and McClain face trial next year on racketeering conspiracy charges. McClain was also convicted at trial earlier this year in a separate case, along with three others, for conspiring to bribe Madigan to benefit ComEd.

Meanwhile, Mapes has become the seventh person to face a jury verdict this year as a result of the feds’ public corruption investigations in Chicago. Prosecutors called 14 witnesses across eight days of testimony to make their case that Mapes lied to the grand jury.

Defense attorneys argued that Mapes either didn’t know the answers to specific questions posed to him in the grand jury, or he couldn’t remember them. They called four of their own witnesses on the last day of testimony Tuesday: Mapes’ wife, Bronwyn Rains; human memory expert Dawn McBride; private investigator David Hodapp; and former Democratic Party of Illinois staffer Emily Wurth.

Mapes’ trial lasted three weeks in all. The prosecution witnesses included three current or former elected officials: state Rep. Robert “Bob” Rita, former state Rep. Greg Harris and former state Rep. Lou Lang.

Rita told jurors he couldn’t think of anyone closer to Madigan than McClain or Mapes. That supported testimony from retired FBI Special Agent Brendan O’Leary, who supervised much of the Madigan investigation. 

O’Leary told jurors Madigan was “different from any other politician I’ve seen.”

“No cellphone, no emails, no texts,” O’Leary said of Madigan. “He relied on his tight inner circle.”

And that was why investigators were so interested to hear what Mapes had to tell the grand jury, O’Leary explained.

Madigan forced Mapes to resign as chief of staff in June 2018 over bullying and harassment claims. But the feds offered evidence that Mapes kept track of the burgeoning investigation into his former boss. The probe went public in 2019. 

That evidence seemed designed to undermine the notion that Mapes could have been caught off guard by questions in the grand jury.

Jurors heard that, when sexual harassment complaints against a top Madigan political aide rocked his organization in 2018, McClain sent a fiery email laying out a plan to save the speaker. McClain wrote it was time to “play hardball and quit doing this nicey/nicey stuff,” and he suggested pitching scandalous stories to “over worked, underpayed” news reporters.

Mapes was among the recipients.

Finally, prosecutors used a monthslong wiretap of McClain’s phone to undermine various bits of testimony Mapes gave to the grand jury. For example, Mapes testified that McClain would not have given him insight into McClain’s dealings with Madigan, but jurors heard multiple recordings in which McClain did exactly that.

Mapes is also accused in the attempted obstruction of justice count of testifying falsely about not knowing whether McClain communicated with Lang at Madigan’s direction.

Jurors heard a recording of McClain telling Mapes in 2018 that he had an “assignment” from Madigan to tell Lang it was time to resign from office over a brewing allegation.

McClain and Mapes discussed that “assignment” multiple times, including once when Mapes asked McClain, “Will you be wearing your big boy pants that day?”

When it was the defense’s turn, Wurth supported the notion that people with direct access to Madigan, like Mapes once had, didn’t necessarily trust McClain’s claims that he did work and passed messages for Madigan. They referred to that notion as Springfield “folklore.”

When asked whether she was “aware of whether Mr. McClain did any tasks or assignments for Mr. Madigan,” Wurth told jurors, “I don’t remember that he did tasks or assignments for the speaker.”

During closing arguments, defense attorney Andrew Porter repeatedly told jurors that the grand jury’s investigation was all about the allegations that were central to McClain’s earlier trial revolving around ComEd. Mapes was not heard discussing them in wiretaps played in Mapes’ trial.

But the grand jury’s investigation of Madigan went well beyond the ComEd allegations. And when Porter finished his argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur quickly made that clear.

“This man knew this was a broad-based investigation,” MacArthur said, pointing toward Mapes.

Sherri Garrett, the former House staffer whose harassment allegations against Mapes led to his ouster in 2018, said in a statement that the trial exposed “the ways that Mr. Mapes and the rest of the inner circle of that organization worked to discredit those of us who were speaking out about our toxic work environment.”

“My experience speaking out about the sexual harassment I endured in 2018 was painful — and more painful was knowing that there were countless others like me who were too afraid of Mr. Mapes to come forward and speak their own truths,” Garrett said. “I hope that those individuals feel some relief today, as I know I do. I remain hopeful, as I have all along, that more people will now feel safe coming forward, knowing that their stories can lead to real change.”

North Side state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who was among the first to call out Madigan leading up to Springfield #MeToo reckoning, called the verdict “a vindication for those who, over the years, were willing to stand up and speak out in the face of injustice and abuse by Mapes and his boss.”

“Anyone who has spent any time at all in the Capitol has to have found the defense’s attempt to portray Mapes as a victim who was ‘devastated’ by his completely justified removal as Madigan’s chief of staff and executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois laughable at best,” Cassidy said in a statement. “Mapes used his power to deliver abuse, harassment, and bullying customized for maximum impact on his victims.”

She continued: “We’ve taken some important steps forward, but it’s critical that we remain vigilant to prevent future entrenchment and concentration of power while we continue to expand protections for those who experience harassment in the Capitol.”

Alaina Hampton, who had accused a top political aide to Madigan of sexual harassment, released a statement calling the verdict “an important step in the direction of full justice. But there’s more to be done.”

“I have always said that my experience was the symptom of a toxic culture, and that it started at the top,” she said. “Tim Mapes was as close to the top as it gets … The defense attempted to paint Tim Mapes as a victim worthy of pity after his resignation. It seems clear they were intentionally trying to divert attention from the reason for his resignation in the first place–his habitual sexual harassment and bullying.”