A Chicago newspaper is reporting that a federal affidavit says the FBI secretly recorded Illinois' powerful House speaker in 2014 discussing a hotel development project and the possibility of its Chinese developer becoming a client of the speaker's private law firm.
Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times' report on Michael Madigan suggests a federal investigation may cast a much wider net than first thought after it led to an attempted extortion charge this month against Chicago alderman, Ed Burke.
Madigan has been a formidable powerbroker in Illinois for decades. The 76-year-old Chicago Democrat is the longest-serving current speaker of a Statehouse in the U.S. He's held the post almost continuously since 1983.
In a statement to the Sun-Times, a Madigan attorney, Heather Wier Vaught, denied any wrongdoing by the speaker, adding that neither he nor his law firm is under investigation to their knowledge.
