Defense lawyers for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan called their first witness in his federal corruption trial.
Madigan’s first witness, developer Andrew Cretal, was building a 300-unit apartment project in the West Loop in 2017.
Prosecutors say Madigan, with help from government mole Danny Solis, illegally targeted Cretal’s company for tax work for the then-speaker’s law firm. His testimony, though, was marked by contradictions.
Cretal first told Madigan’s lawyer he didn’t feel “threatened, fearful or intimidated” into hiring Madigan’s law firm. But later —- he told prosecutors that in nearly 20 years as a real estate developer, he’d never gotten a request by a public official, as he did with Solis, to meet with a potential vendor like Madigan. He found it strange. And Cretal also said he feared his project might tank if he didn’t hire Madigan’s firm.
