Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan stepped down from the witness stand Tuesday after days of testifying in his own defense in his corruption trial. It is up to the jury eventually to decide if Madigan's testimony helped or hurt his case.

CHICAGO — Former Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan faced his toughest test since deciding to take the stand in his public corruption trial. On Monday, prosecutors finally got their chance to cross-examine the 82-year-old who is charged with bribery, racketeering, wire fraud, official misconduct and other crimes.

The hotly anticipated cross-examination of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan kicked off Monday with a sledgehammer of a wiretap: Audio of a 2018 phone call in which Madigan and his co-defendant Michael McClain chuckle about how some ComEd contractors “made out like bandits,