Commonwealth Edison was teetering on the edge of financial disaster when four executives and lobbyists got together on a scheme to shower then-House Speaker Michael Madigan with a stream of benefits and “turn the tide” for the utility with a series of big wins in Springfield, a federal prosecutor told the jury Monday in closing arguments of the “ComEd Four” bribery trial.
Among the benefits bestowed on the powerful Democratic leader were $1.3 million in payments to Madigan-approved ghost subcontractors who did little or no work, hiring a politically connected law firm run by a longtime Madigan associate, and putting a businessman on the utility’s board on the speaker’s recommendation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said.
“That was not legal lobbying,” MacArthur said. “That was a bribe and it was corrupt.”
But unlike traditional bribery, MacArthur said, the bribes in this case are not the kind “involving putting money in an envelope.”
“There isn’t an envelope in this world big enough to fit all the money that ComEd paid out,” MacArthur said.
Charged in the ComEd Four case are Michael McClain, 75, a Madigan confidant and longtime ComEd lobbyist; Pramaggiore, 64, a lawyer and onetime rising star in Chicago’s corporate world; Jay Doherty, 69, a longtime ComEd contract lobbyist and ex-president of the City Club of Chicago; and Hooker, 74, who over a 44-year career worked his way from the utility’s mailroom to become its point man in Springfield.
The indictment alleged the four conspired to funnel $1.3 million in payments to ghost “subcontractors,” largely through Doherty’s company, who were actually Madigan’s cronies as part of an elaborate scheme to get the speaker to look favorably at the company’s legislative agenda.
In addition to paying the subcontractors, the utility also hired a clouted law firm run by political operative Victor Reyes, distributed numerous college internships within Madigan’s 13th Ward fiefdom, and blatantly backed former McPier chief Juan Ochoa, the friend of a Madigan ally, for a seat on the utility’s board of directors, the indictment alleged.
In return, prosecutors say, Madigan used his influence over the General Assembly to help ComEd score a series of huge legislative victories that not only rescued the company from financial instability but led to record-breaking, billion-dollar profits.
Among them was the 2011 smart grid bill that set a built-in formula for the rates ComEd could charge customers, avoiding battles with the Illinois Commerce Commission, according to the charges. ComEd also leaned on Madigan’s office to help pass the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016, which kept the formula rate in place and also rescued two nuclear plants run by an affiliated company, Exelon Generation.
“The system of corruptly influencing Michael Madigan with a stream of benefits and rewards had been up and running for years,” MacArthur said. “But things had changed.” Anne Pramaggiore had moved on. There was a new CEO, Joe Dominguez, and they “did not like him” or trust him
To prove their case, prosecutors have tried to show that the ComEd Four defendants corrupted that process by providing a stream of benefits to Madigan and his cronies in exchange for what they hoped would be the speaker’s favorable treatment of their ambitious legislative agenda in Springfield.
Defense attorneys have argued repeatedly — and will surely again Monday — that none of the jobs and other benefits allegedly bestowed upon Madigan can be directly tied to anything the speaker did for ComEd in the General Assembly.
In deliberating the case, jurors will have to sift through a mountain of evidence, including dozens of wiretapped phone calls and secretly recorded videos, hundreds of emails and internal documents, and the live testimony of some 50 witnesses, including current and former state legislators, ComEd executives, and Madigan insiders such as former political staffer Will Cousineau and legendary 13th Ward precinct captain Ed Moody.
newAlso key to their decision will be the testimony of two of the four defendants, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and Hooker, who spent years as ComEd’s top internal lobbyist.end
[ ‘ComEd Four’ bribery trial: What you need to know ]
One person, however, has been a sort of elephant in the courtroom: Madigan himself.
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While Madigan and McClain were indicted in March 2022 on separate racketeering charges related to the ComEd scheme and other alleged corrupt acts, the ComEd Four jury knows nothing about that case, which is scheduled for trial next April.
The indictment came a year after Madigan lost his speakership in 2021, when his own Democratic caucus refused to back him as the burgeoning ComEd scandal became a political albatross. He then gave up his House seat.
Along with hearing the speaker’s voice on numerous wiretapped phone calls, Madigan’s image has also shown shown up in a variety of ways, including a less-than-flattering driver’s license photo, a bizarre, ComEd-created cartoon of him with a crown on his head, and a decades-old photo of him with Moody and his twin brother, Fred.
[ ‘ComEd Four’ trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury ]
Whether Madigan’s physical absence at the defense table will play at all into the jury’s deliberations remains to be seen, but it has meant that the jurors heard the speaker accused of a lengthy list of >>questionable acts crimeswithout him being there to defend himself.
Closing arguments are set to begin around 9:30 a.m. Monday in U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber’s 17th floor courtroom.
At jury instruction conference Thursday, Leinenweber gave prosecutors three hours total to argue their case, including remarks in rebuttal that are the last arguments the jury hears before starting deliberations.
Each of the four defendants will have an hour and a half, though they can trade time with each other, the judge said.
