Tim Mapes, former chief of staff to disgraced Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison after he lied to a federal grand jury investigating his former boss on allegations of public corruption.
Mapes was convicted in August 2023 on one count of providing false testimony under oath to a federal grand jury and one count of obstruction of justice.
U.S. District Judge John Kness said at the hearing he was struggling to understand why Mapes ended up in this situation, the Chicago Tribune reported . Mapes had been granted immunity in the investigation into his former boss, as long as he told the truth.
“This is a very sad case to me, because I don’t understand why you did what you did,” Kness said, according to the Tribune. “You were immunized in the grand jury, and all you had to do was go in there and tell the truth.”
Kness speculated Mapes was motivated by a sense of loyalty to his former boss.
“You knew what you were doing when you went into the grand jury and you lied,” Kness added, according to the Tribune. “I don’t know why you did this. Perhaps this was out of some sense of loyalty, but if that’s the case your loyalty was greatly misguided.”