CHICAGO (CBS) – For five days, one of the star witnesses in former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's federal corruption trial has been on the stand testifying about his relationship to Madigan and his close associate and lobbyist Michael McClain.

Before the sun rose on a cold Wednesday morning in January 2019, Fidel Marquez agreed to a life-altering assignment as a cooperating witness in a criminal case the government was building against his colleagues at electric utility Commonwealth Edison and powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Defense attorneys in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan on Wednesday attacked the credibility of a key prosecution witness, questioning his motives for cooperating with the FBI and grilling him over attempts to hide money in a divorce and his recent attempted purchase of a gun to shoot rattlesnakes.

The former chief lobbyist for electric utility Commonwealth Edison has spent the last week telling a federal jury how he bent over backward to accommodate hiring requests from former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Defense attorneys in the Michael Madigan corruption trial began their cross-examination of a key witness Tuesday by trying to distinguish between exchanging jobs for official actions and simply

The corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has resumed in downtown Chicago. Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain are charged with 23 federal counts of bribery, racketeering and official misconduct.

Patrick Cotter, defense attorney for a longtime Madigan ally, spent more than three hours cross-examining former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, trying to methodically rehabilitate his client.