The former general counsel for Commonwealth Edison testified Wednesday that he helped allies of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan hunt down jobs in law firms and at the utility itself, including a coveted position on the company’s board of directors.
In one of the central allegations in the government’s case, Tom O’Neill, ComEd’s former chief lawyer, testified that Madigan wanted former McPier chief Juan Ochoa to get placed into a rare vacant seat on the company’s board in late 2017 and that CEO Anne Pramaggiore was behind the move because Ochoa’s resume came from Madigan.
“I did discuss that I had some concerns about someone from the speaker’s office being on the ComEd board,” O’Neill said of a conversation with Pramaggiore, citing the optics and the exclusive company information that could go before the board. “She wanted to go forward. She thought it was important.”
Ochoa was the only name considered for the position, which paid about $75,000 a year, O’Neill said.
O’Neill, whose testimony began Tuesday, has provided the jury in the “ComEd Four” trial the first links between a benefit the utility giant allegedly gave Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, and the work the speaker’s office’s did to shepherd legislation ComEd desperately wanted through the Illinois House chamber.
Along with Pramaggiore, the defendants in the sweeping bribery case are Michael McClain, a longtime ComEd contract lobbyist and Madigan confidant; John Hooker, a longtime ComEd lobbyist; and Jay Doherty, a ComEd lobbyist and previous chief of the City Club of Chicago.
The indictment alleged ComEd poured $1.3 million into payments funneled to ghost “subcontractors” who were actually Madigan’s cronies, put the Madigan-backed Ochoa on the ComEd board, and gave coveted internships to families in his 13th Ward, all part of an elaborate scheme to keep the speaker happy and help the utility’s legislative agenda in Springfield.
[ [Don’t miss] ‘ComEd Four’ bribery trial: What you need to know ]
The charges alleged ComEd also agreed to hire a law firm led by Victor Reyes, a longtime Democratic political operative and key ally of the speaker.
The defendants’ attorneys contend that the so-called scheme was nothing more than legal lobbying, part of the state’s high-stakes, often-messy politics where myriad interest groups and stakeholders compete for access to lawmakers.
Madigan and McClain, meanwhile, are facing separate racketeering charges alleging an array of corrupt schemes, including the bribery plot by ComEd.
O’Neill testified Wednesday that spot on the ComEd board opened up when the previous board member, Jesse Ruiz, ran for attorney general, and there was a discussion as to whether he had been promised he could return to the board if he was unsuccessful in the race.
Ruiz eventually lost. But the focus stayed on choosing Ochoa, with full discussions about his association with Madigan and other issues that came up during a “due diligence” background check, O’Neill said.
Among the issues: The “bad press” Ochoa received regarding Rod Blagojevich, the former governor who’d appointed Ochoa to McPier before later being charged with unrelated acts of corruption and going to prison, O’Neill said.
The background check also turned up Ochoa’s failure to keep up with mortgage payments on a property in Berwyn, resulting in foreclosure, and a lawsuit Ochoa filed claiming harassment by opponents in a political campaign, O’Neill said. Even so, O’Neill said he did not think Ochoa should be disqualified from consideration for the board.
Like Ruiz, Ochoa was a Hispanic candidate and ComEd had an interested in promoting diversity, O’Neill said.
But O’Neill left little doubt that the key reason for backing Ochoa was Pramaggiore’s desire to please Madigan, whose help in steering legislation through Springfield was beneficial to ComEd.
“I was concerned about the optics,” O’Neill said.
Many months went by before Ochoa was finally appointed after a high-level meeting he had with Pramaggiore and Chris Crane, a ranking member of both ComEd and Exelon who ultimately made the decision appoint Ochoa in 2019.
“We talked about the Madigan connection, and Anne was for that,” O’Neill said.
The Tribune has previously reported that Ochoa’s appointment came about due to a strange political alliance between Madigan and then-U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez.
[ [Don’t miss] Michael Madigan’s voice heard for first time on recordings played at ‘ComEd Four’ trial ]
Ochoa is expecfted to testify later in the trial that he believed Gutierrez was owed a political favor by Madigan because the congressman had endorsed the speaker in the previous election,
Sources told the Tribune that Gutierrez and Ochoa met personally with Madigan to push the idea, as well as with then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Copies of Emanuel’s official calendars from the time, released to the Tribune via an open records request, show that Emanuel met with Ochoa and Gutierrez at City Hall on Nov. 17, 2017.
Also in the loop on the Ochoa appointment push was U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, close ally of Gutierrez and Ochoa who’d recently joined political forces with Madigan.
On Feb. 19, 2019, Madigan was recorded telling McClain that Ochoa had left a message at his office that morning asking if he Garcia could have a meeting with the speaker, according to court records.
“OK, so you see there’s a request from Ochoa, and Ochoa being Ochoa, the message reads, ‘Ochoa and Congressman Garcia,’” Madigan told McClain, according to prosecutors. “So I called Chuy, and Chuy really didn’t know anything about it. … But Chuy knew there was some delay in the appointment of Ochoa.”
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García, whose mention in the phone calls was first reported by the Tribune in January, is not accused of wrongdoing, and he has denied he played any role in Ochoa’s ultimate appointment.
Earlier in his testimony on Wednesday, O’Neill told the jury more about the pressure Pramaggiore and McClain put on him to give political operative Victor Reyes’ law firm higher hourly rates and a guaranteed number of billable hours following repeated requests from McClain, who acted on the speaker’s behalf.
Through a series of pointed emails, McClain, who was unusually involved in fine details of the Reyes contract with ComEd, showed a heightened interest around the time O’Neill was negotiating with Madigan’s office and other stakeholders on major utility legislation that critics have contended have been way too lucrative for the company, O’Neill testified.
O’Neill then began walking through a series of other matters pushed by McClain on behalf of Madigan. Prosecutors had him describe a series of McClain emails urging O’Neill and his staff to find legal work for then-Rep. Arthur Turner II, nearly fresh out of law school, and set up interviews for him at various law firms.
One of the more politically intriguing disclosures on Wednesday was when O’Neill testified Pramaggiore was pushing to give an executive-level job to Will Cousineau, who had served as the political director on Madigan’s government staff.
Eventually, Cousineau landed a job with a Washington-based firm with a large list of clients in Springfield, including ComEd.
The Tribune previously reported Cousineau was among a group of utility lobbyists that McClain gathered together to give at least $31,000 in contracts to 13th Ward lieutenant Kevin Quinn after he was ousted by Madigan in a sexual harassment scandal. Quinn is the brother of Madigan’s hand-picked 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn.
