ComEd bribery trial verdict: Madigan associate, 3 others found guilty on all counts
Four former political power players have been found guilty of conspiring over nearly a decade to bribe then-Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, a once powerful Democrat who is facing his own corruption trial next year.
Word came late in the afternoon Tuesday, a week after the jury began deliberations. Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual was among the attorneys who gathered in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber before the verdict was announced.
Two of the defendants — ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty — arrived by around 4:45 p.m. They were joined 10 minutes later by Madigan confidant Michael McClain and former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore.
The jurors began filing in soon afterward, and the judge announced they had found all four guilty on all counts.
“Oh dear God,” McClain’s wife said just before the verdict was read, her hands held by two family members.
After the verdict, defense attorney Patrick Cotter put a hand on McClain’s shoulder and told him, “It’s not over.”
Outside the courtroom, a McClain relative gave Pramaggiore’s son a hug.
Leinenweber complimented the jurors for their service. ”You folks have been front and center, and it’s been a delight.”
He told them the time they took to deliberate “goes to show that you didn’t rush to judgment.” With that, he adjourned. No sentencing hearings set.
Sarah Goldenberg, the jury foreperson, said jurors “ached about” how the allegations crossed the line from lobbying into criminal activity.
“The term we reviewed heavily was goodwill, where goodwill is to have those relationships with representatives in the political arena for the benefit of the company you’re associated with. And we felt this went beyond goodwill to ‘intent to influence,’” said Goldenberg, a 34-year-old data analyst.
She said Madigan “had heavy influence, and he allowed the people around him to use his power to influence the way companies were behaving, and pay money to others to spread his extended reach of influence. I do think he had a heavy hand in how this corruption and coercion took place. But if it wasn’t the actions of the individuals charged, he wouldn’t have any influence.”
Another juror had the same take on Madigan. “He really did cause this all to happen,” she said.
She called the defendants good people who made bad decisions. “They’re not alone in that.”
A slew of state lawmakers rushed to offer their reaction, the first out of the gate after the verdict was announced were nearly all Republicans, joined by one prominent Democrat, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park.
“The behavior brought to light and put on display at this trial was shockingly gluttonous and unhealthy to democracy,” Harmon said. “We’ve taken concrete steps to discourage bad behavior. But most importantly, I believe we have people committed to behaving better.”
But Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) said Illinois still needs “real reforms that shine a light on the process and confront the culture of corruption that has gone unchecked for decades. It’s time to restore the public’s trust in their state government.”
McClain, Pramaggiore, Hooker and Doherty were all accused in the trial of a bribery conspiracy aimed at illegally swaying Madigan to benefit ComEd.
Madigan confidant Michael McClain leaves the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after being found guilty of bribery conspiracy. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere | Sun-Times
Onetime City Club President Jay Doherty leaves the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after he was found guilty of bribery conspiracy. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere | Sun-Times
Ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker leaves the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after being found guilty of bribery conspiracy. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere | Sun-Times
The case was the result of an aggressive, yearslong federal investigation into Chicago-style politics, which shook the state and ended the careers of some of Illinois’ most significant politicians. The jurors who heard the case were the first to consider its core allegations.
At the center of it all is Madigan, targeted by the feds since 2014. His record-breaking grip on power in the Illinois Capitol was finally broken in 2021, two months after a grand jury handed up the indictment that triggered the trial that stretched over the last two months.
Madigan’s own trial on a separate racketeering indictment is set to begin in April 2024.
McClain, Pramaggiore, Hooker and Doherty were accused of arranging for jobs, contracts and money for Madigan allies in an illegal bid to influence him as legislation moved through Springfield that took ComEd from a “dire” financial situation in the 2000s to record earnings in 2022.
ComEd trial timeline ComEd Scandal Timeline This timeline looks at the key players involved in the trial and the main events leading up to it. Scroll through it here.
Their defense attorneys insisted the feds had concocted a “dark theory” out of what was really honest, legal lobbying. Pramaggiore and Hooker testified during the trial, but McClain and Doherty did not.
Jurors heard that five Madigan allies were paid $1.3 million by ComEd over eight years. The money was paid through intermediaries, including Doherty’s consulting firm, but the men allegedly did little or no work for ComEd. The recipients were former Alds. Frank Olivo and Michael R. Zalewski, former Cook County Recorder of Deeds Edward Moody, former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo and longtime Madigan campaign worker Raymond Nice.
No charges have been filed against Olivo, Zalewski, Nice or Moody, though prosecutors have said Moody was not charged in exchange for truthful testimony. He testified in the trial April 11. Acevedo has not been charged as part of the scheme, but he recently served a six-month prison sentence for tax evasion in a spinoff prosecution.
The feds also pointed to three other schemes allegedly designed to influence Madigan. One involved the 2016 renewal of an unusual contract for the law firm Reyes Kurson — where political operative Victor Reyes is partner — in which the firm was assured 850 billable hours a year. Another was an effort by Madigan and McClain between 2017 and 2019 to put former McPier boss Juan Ochoa on ComEd’s board.
Finally, the defendants were accused of making sure internship positions at ComEd were set aside for people associated with Madigan’s power base in Chicago’s 13th Ward.
The formal allegations first came to light in July 2020, when then-U.S. Attorney John Lausch announced a bribery charge against ComEd. The utility entered into a three-year deal with the feds in which it agreed to pay a $200 million fine and admitted to the conduct at issue. However, its lawyers formally pleaded not guilty in court and, if it holds up its end of the deal, prosecutors will ultimately seek dismissal of the bribery charge.
A status hearing in ComEd’s case is set for July 17.
A grand jury followed up four months after ComEd was charged with the indictment against McClain, Pramaggiore, Hooker and Doherty. The allegations were also explored by a legislative committee that fall. Then, in January 2021, Madigan failed to secure the votes he needed to retain the speaker’s gavel.
Madigan was not criminally charged until March 2022 in an indictment that accused him of the same scheme at issue in the trial that has now ended, in addition to other allegations. That means the last several weeks have offered a preview of what’s in store for Madigan next year.
Madigan’s separate indictment also includes additional charges against McClain, meaning he could also face trial all over again next year.
The public corruption trials are among several set to play out at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse over the next year. Outgoing Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) is set to stand trial in November, for example.
Jurors in the ComEd bribery trial heard in the last two months how former state Rep. Lou Lang was told to resign by McClain, allegedly acting as an agent of Madigan. They heard current state Rep. Robert “Bob” Rita say that Madigan ruled his chamber “through fear and intimidation.” They heard testimony from elusive former Madigan aide Will Cousineau and from Moody, once a top precinct captain for Madigan.
They watched as a parade of FBI agents explained how they fanned out to raid the homes of Madigan allies but struggled to find evidence that they ever did any work for ComEd. And they saw FBI cooperator Fidel Marquez share undercover recordings he made — including in Springfield political haunt Saputo’s restaurant.
The recordings made by Marquez were crucial to the case. He is a onetime ComEd executive who agreed in January 2019 to work undercover for the FBI. Over the course of several weeks in early 2019, he recorded each of the defendants discussing the arrangement in which Madigan allies were paid through Doherty’s firm.
Marquez spent about a week on the stand during the trial, telling jurors he once regarded the defendants as friends. He was then grilled by a defense attorney over his decision to work with the FBI against them in a bid to avoid prison time.
Marquez will likely take the stand again next year, if Madigan goes to trial. Marquez has pleaded guilty to a bribery conspiracy but has not been sentenced.
ComEd had a new CEO by the time Marquez began cooperating for the feds — Joseph Dominguez. So Marquez told McClain, Pramaggiore, Hooker and Doherty he had to figure out how to explain to Dominguez the arrangement in which Madigan’s allies were paid through Doherty’s contract.
Prosecutors showed jurors a video Marquez made at a dimly lit table inside Saputo’s on Feb. 7, 2019. There, McClain offered a warning to Marquez about the arrangement: “Don’t put anything in writing.” Later in the meeting McClain added, “I think all that can do is hurt ya.”
The feds then recorded Hooker and McClain chatting on Feb. 11, 2019, about how they had conceived the arrangement, with Hooker saying, “It’s clean for all of us.”
“We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us … It’s that simple,” McClain said.
In a meeting two days later, Marquez spoke with Doherty and asked him what work the subcontractors did for him. Doherty answered, “Not much.” He went on to tell Marquez that “my bottom-line advice would be, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ with those guys.”
In a Feb. 18, 2019 phone call, Marquez told Pramaggiore that he’d learned from Doherty that “all these guys do is pretty much collect a check.” She advised him to “make a switch,” but also told him to wait until the end of the legislative session. She said they didn’t want someone to get “their nose out of joint,” meaning ComEd would be forced to give someone a “five-year contract because we’re in the middle of needing to get something done in Springfield.”
On the witness stand last month, Pramaggiore insisted she didn’t realize Marquez was talking about people tied to Madigan. She said the call actually “proves my innocence.”
Finally, in a Feb. 27, 2019, meeting between Marquez, McClain and Hooker, Marquez asked how “our friend” — meaning Madigan — might react to the end of the arrangement.
Hooker responded by saying, “You’re not gonna do it? You’re not going to do something for me, I don’t have to do anything for you.”
During his testimony last month, Hooker told a prosecutor he was confused during that conversation and actually thought Marquez was asking him how Madigan might react to a labor dispute.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
