Eye On Illinois: Despite taxpayer-funded salary, Mapes was no public servant

Tim Mapes is not an object lesson.

That was true when a federal jury convicted him in August, and nothing has changed since Monday’s announcement of his 30-month prison sentence.

Mapes, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s top aide, is guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice because he lied to a grand jury investigating Madigan and his inner circle.

Hannah Meisel’s Capitol News Illinois coverage cleanly explained what happened: The FBI interviewed Mapes in February 2021, apparently seeking to determine the role of another Madigan insider, Mike McClain. In response to a grand jury subpoena, Mapes invoked the Fifth Amendment protection against potentially incriminating himself.

Prosecutors asked a judge to give Mapes immunity, favoring his truthful information over potentially charging Mapes with his own crimes. After Mapes testified before a grand jury for more than two hours, the government said Mapes lied under oath. Jurors heard the entire recording, then spent five hours deciding “Mapes lied in response to seven questions in front of the grand jury,” Meisel wrote, with answers to 14 questions bolstering the obstruction of justice charge.

Mapes isn’t an object lesson for a few reasons. One, the feds have fried far bigger fish. Almost everyone has seen potential consequences firsthand and many remain undeterred. But more relevant today is that Mapes isn’t an elected official, so few popular legislative ethics reform proposals would apply to his situation.

That point echoed as Mapes spoke to U.S. District Judge John Kness at Monday’s sentencing.

“For 30 years, I tried my best to serve the people of the state of Illinois,” Mapes said. “I never intended to be anything but a public servant … I tried in ways big and small to live my life as a good man.”

Except Mapes wasn’t really a public servant. He might’ve been on the government payroll, but he answered to his boss, Speaker Madigan. He also served as Democratic Party of Illinois director while Madigan was chairman. That’s politics, not government.

You don’t have to be on a ballot to be in public service, and there will always be some gray areas in the overlap between politics and government. But we’re kidding ourselves if we define “public employee” as someone who spent more than a quarter-century working directly under a career politician who shrewdly amassed power to a degree almost unparalleled in modern times.

The trial itself proves the point, as Mapes’ famed loyalty to Madigan ultimately invited his own downfall … though not before he banked about $725,000 in pension payments since his 2018 resignation.

It’ll be easy for other legislative aides to avoid Mapes’ fate. It’s much harder for lawmakers to close the loopholes that made his lucrative career possible.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.