Why Michael Madigan hasn't yet been indicted Jim Nowlan FacebookTwitterEmail Friends ask: “Why hasn’t Mike Madigan been indicted yet? After all, he has been under investigation for what must be a couple of years now.” My answer: It’s because the federal prosecutor is not confident he can prove that the former Illinois House speaker personally did anything illegal. I define public corruption as receiving unearned personal gain at taxpayer expense. There are obviously illegal forms of corruption — as well as “legal corruption.” In the latter, there is political gain but not provable personal gain. For example, several decades ago, there was passionate debate in Springfield over Illinois ratification of the U.S. Equal Rights Amendment (an effort which then failed narrowly in Illinois). As the debate raged, in the state Capitol and within earshot of others, a woman baldly offered a legislator $500 or so if he would vote for the ERA Amendment. That is clearly an act of public corruption, and she was convicted for same, as I recall.