Judge Ellis is on the bench. I'll bring the highlights here

https://twitter.com/jmetr22b/status/1986446828389183667

Ellis starts out by saying "Chicago is home to many artists and poets and one of them is Carl Sandberg who wrote a poem 'Chicago'"
She's now quoting from it: "Hog butcher for the world"

Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino just entered Judge Sara Ellis' courtroom and took a seat at the defense table in his green uniform jacket.
Hearing starts in 10 min.
I'll have the highlights The courtroom has filled to capacity and spectators still lined up are being directed to an overflow courtroom on the 21st Floor.

NEW: A Chicago federal judge has extended a consent decree requiring ICE to document probable cause for immigration arrests and found that it repeatedly violated the 2022 agreement by making “warrantless arrests” during “Midway Blitz”
Background: chicagotribune.com/2025/10/04/acl… The judge took particular issue with this practice by ICE agents of carrying blank warrant forms with them on missions and filling them out at the scene.

The detention hearing for Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz is underway.
Judge McShain's courtroom is packed

https://twitter.com/jmetr22b/status/1975247505991282919

AUSA Hennessy says the actions of Martinez and Ruiz were "extremely dangerous and extremely reckless"
"They endangered one another, and they also put in danger anybody who was on the street, other motorists or people who were walking around in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Looks like the ComEd Four jury has a question, their first of the day. Leinenweber: The question is, "If on instruction page 43 you don't believe the government proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" can page 48 of the instructions still be applied yes or no?"

The ComEd Four jury has a question…already! "Please clarify a possible discrepancy with the use of conjunctions and/or" the jury note says.
Leinenweber says "This is precisely the same issue I had with the R. Kelly case."
The problem is the indictment is in disjunctive and instructions are conjunctive

🧵 20 years ago today, I was the overnight desk editor for City News.
My one reporter was busy checking on the usual list of fires and murders.
We were the only 2 journalists on duty in Chicago when a crazy tip came in: Bulldozers were rolling down the street, toward Meigs Field. My first reaction was— Probably a construction project getting underway early. But I whistled up Peter Beller at Chicago police HQ anyways and told him “you better go check this out.”
20 minutes later, he called me from his Nokia flip phone. “THEY’RE TEARING UP THE RUNWAY!!!”

Sorry-was delayed getting back to trial... we're still on Cotter's cross. It's been quite civilized, compared to other recent trials... (ahem...RKelly)
ie:
Sir, please answer my question before launching into whatever else it is you want to say.
My apologies.
You're forgiven. Cotter: These job recommendations that came from Mike McClain were exactly that, job recommendations. Some of them got hired... some didn't. Right?
Marquez: "They were job recommendations coming from the speaker"

We're back. Marquez is testifying about a wiretapped recording from 2018 where Marquez, Pramaggiore, and McClain were talking about a bill that Madigan's daughter, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, wanted and ComEd opposed. Cotter: Does McClain ever say to you "I'll just go to the Speaker because he owes us and I'll ask him to ask Lisa to change the bill or pull it?
Marquez: No.
Cotter: Instead, McClain suggests a very sophisticated and extensive strategy to lobby and defeat the bill?
Marquez: Yes

Judge Leinenweber is on the bench in the "ComEd Four" case, asking defense how long they each have in cross.
Lassar, who started Wednesday, says he has "11 minutes" left.
McClain's attorney, Patrick Cotter, is making no promises. Btw, you may have wondered why there are no photos of gov't witness Fidel Marquez coming in and out of the courthouse every day.
Marquez, who made himself scarce after word of his cooperation first circulated in 2019, appears to be getting a private escort treatment by the feds

“You did not believe that ComEd had bribed Mike Madigan, did you?”
“Correct.”
Cross-examination of star witness in "ComEd Four" case underway.
UPDATE w/@RayLong chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-… We're back after the afternoon break. Marquez testifying on cross about ComEd legislation and how the company would have its vendors contact legislators about good things in the bills.
Marquez says the bills "had to be bipartisan" and they couldn't rely on just Democrats

Fidel Marquez is done with direct after about 15 hours of total questioning by prosecutors, starting on Monday.
Up first on cross is Scott Lassar, lawyer for Anne Pramaggiore Lassar asks about the day the FBI confronted Marquez at his mother's home.
Q: They scared the daylights out of you didn't they?
"I was scared."
Q: And you hoped you wouldn't be prosecuted?
"I did not expect to be charged, correct."

Jury is coming back in for "ComEd Four" trial... prosecutor Bhachu says he has about 20 minutes left of direct, which began Monday morning. Recording from April 2019, Hooker tells Marquez that Anne Pramaggiore was thinking of bringing in Mapes as a consultant with McClain
"And McClain would like that," Hooker says.

Tough to tell whether all these emails are landing with the "ComEd Four" jury. But if nothing else, it gives you a visceral sense of what it was like to have to deal with Michael McClain on a daily basis.
Good lord. Bhachu now says he should finish direct “somewhere around lunchtime.”

The "ComEd Four" jury is back in the box and we begin with -- SURPRISE! -- another email from Michael McClain about a political hire.
"Obviously, this came from our Friend and I have not heard anything from your staff ....." McClain wrote to ComEd VP Fidel Marquez. McClain's follow up email on this is beyond snarky, saying the person Marquez gave this assignment to "does not know if this is a Presidential request or God's but she or he knows it comes from her or his boss and then they wait until you write with a status report?"

Uche has been going for a little over an hour. After he brought up the $2 million that Smollett testified the Osundairos wanted to keep quiet, prosecutors objected.
"The jury heard what the evidence was and what the evidence wasn’t on that," Linn says. Uche brings up the security guard: "The witness tells you in an American courthouse he was pressured and threatened to change his story and say 'I did not see a white person.' What in the world is going on?"

Closing arguments are set to begin in less than an hour in #JussieSmollett’s trial on charges of reporting a phony hate crime. Judge Linn is known for keeping jurors deliberating late into the night if need be, so put on an extra pot of coffee…chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-… w/@crepeau The judge has not said publicly if there are time limits on closing arguments, but 26th and Cal vets are guessing about 90 minutes total per side. So the jury should be getting the case later in the afternoon

We are back at the #Smollett trial. Webb confirms he's finished his cross. Attorney Nenye Uche is on redirect. Uche asking if Ola had shown up uninvited before, Smollett says yes, many times. "Let me clarify... uninvited by me," he says.

#JussieSmollett is retaking the witness stand now. Prosecutor Dan Webb is resuming his slightly folksy questioning, getting Jussie to admit that he drove around Lakeview with the Osundairo brothers, but deny that he recruited them in the hoax attack during the ride.

///BREAKING/// #JussieSmollett has been called to testify in his own defense on charged he arranged a fake hate crime attack on himself. Smollett is wearing a gray suit, maroon tie. Just got sworn in. Asked what he does for a living: "I am an artist."

We are back in the #Smollett trial. Next defense witness is Brett Mahoney, who worked on the "Empire" set. Mahoney was the show's executive producer and later "showrunner," writing scripts and working with director and editors to put everything together for the studios. He worked directly with Smollett, including on episodes Jussie directed