Attorneys for ’ComEd Four‘ argue their case as deliberations near
Attorneys for the final two “ComEd Four” defendants told a federal jury Tuesday that prosecutors have failed to show any connection between payments the utility made to lobbying subcontractors and any official act taken by then-House Speaker Michael Madigan on behalf of ComEd in Springfield.
The arguments from attorneys for John Hooker, a former ComEd executive and lobbyist, and Jay Doherty, a lobbyist and former head of the City Club of Chicago, rounded out more than five hour of remarks by the defense over the past two days.
Assistant U.S. attorney Amarjeet Bhachu was expected to get the final word for prosecutors in rebuttal, followed by jury instructions and then deliberations.
In her hourlong argument, Hooker’s attorney, Jacqueline Jacobson, said the feds had failed to prove Hooker “knowingly participated in a conspiracy to bribe Mike Madigan,” and that Hooker’s own testimony showed he had no corrupt intent when he hired two of the speaker’s associates, former 13th Ward Ald. Frank Olivo and precinct captain Ray Nice, as subcontracted lobbyists in 2011.
Both Olivo and Nice were good hires, with deep relationships with city officials and working knowledge of the issues confronting the then-floundering utility, Jacobson said.
Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago after another day of testimony in the “ComEd Four” trial on April 18.
“Folks, this is not a bribery conspiracy, this is a business decision that John made in 2011. And a pretty good one,” Jacobson said.
She said that the wiretapped conversations at the center of the prosecution’s case only show Hooker “reminiscing” about his role with the company in 2011, not participation in some grand scheme that allegedly kept unfolding after his retirement.
“There is no way in the world that this man would brag about committing a crime,” Jacobson said, pointing at Hooker at the defense table. She asked the jury if Hooker would really “throw it all away, all 44 ½ years (of his career), to join some conspiracy to benefit a company that he’d announced his retirement from?”
Michael Gillespie, the attorney for Doherty, sounded a similar theme, saying in his hour-long argument that of all the dozens of wiretaps and videotapes played in the trial, Doherty is on only two of them.
“Ladies and gentlemen, with all due respect to this table,” Gillespie said, gesturing toward prosecutors, “there is not a chance. Not a chance that they’ve proven (their case).”
Gillespie said that not only did Doherty have nothing to do with the plan to pay Madigan surrogates, he’s not even “a Madigan guy.”
“He doesn’t go to dinner with Madigan. He’s not on one of those tapes with Michael Madigan,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie pointed to the “Magic List” of Madigan-approved lobbyists cultivated by his co-defendant, Michael McClain, which was shown to the jury with some fanfare by prosecutors last month.
“Lot of names on there. A lot of names. Look at them all,” Gillespie told jurors. “But you know who’s name is not on there? Jay Doherty. Jay’s not a Madigan guy. He’s not.”
Gillespie also reminded the jury they are being asked to pass judgment on a fellow citizen. “Mistakes in these courtrooms alter lives,” he said. “Mistakes in these courtrooms break hearts. It’s a heavy burden and it should be.”
Charged are McClain, 75, a longtime ComEd contract lobbyist and one of Madigan’s closest confidants; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, 64, a lawyer and onetime rising star in Chicago’s corporate world; Doherty, 69, a 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.
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 an $80,000-a-year 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.
Defense attorneys have argued over and over that the government is seeking to criminalize legal lobbying and job recommendations that are at the center of the state’s legitimate political system.
Former ComEd executive John Hooker leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago after another day of testimony in the “ComEd Four” trial on April 18.
In her closing argument Monday, Assistant U.S. attorney Diane MacArthur said the defendants weren’t operating a bribery scheme where a cash-stuffed envelope was was passed under a restaurant table, but a sophisticated web of illicit payments funneled to Madigan’s cronies for years.
“There isn’t an envelope in this world big enough to fit all the money that they made ComEd pay out,” MacArthur said in her closing argument to the jury.
In this Feb. 14, 2019, file photo, Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan listens to a debate during session at the State Capitol in Springfield.
MacArthur then methodically took the jury through the evidence in the case and the nine counts in the indictment, which include bribery conspiracy, circumventing internal business controls and the falsification of business records to allegedly hide the payments ComEd was making.
She said ComEd was teetering on the edge of financial disaster when McClain and his three co-defendants got together on a scheme to shower Madigan with a stream of benefits and “turn the tide” for the utility with a series of big wins in Springfield.
“Madigan wanted, ComEd gave, and ComEd got,” MacArthur said.
MacArthur also bluntly accused Pramaggiore and Hooker of lying on the witness stand when they testified in their own defense earlier this month.
But defense attorneys scoffed at that notion, saying their clients were not only innocent, but that they were “collateral damage” in the government’s yearslong quest to bring down Madigan, the Democratic leader at the apex of Illinois politics who was long considered to be untouchable.
Toward the end of his nearly two-hour presentation, Patrick Cotter, who represents McClain, told the jury that the entire case was “a conclusion in search of evidence.”
“They already had their target. They already knew who was guilty — it was Mike Madigan,” Cotter said, adding that once prosecutors assumed the speaker was guilty, “then everyone near him begins to look guilty.”
His voice quaking with emotion, Cotter urged the jury to “be the shield that you were meant to be.”
“The shield between an individual citizen and a very powerful government, in this case a very powerful government committed and dedicated to getting Mike Madigan,” Cotter said. “Don’t let Mike McClain be collateral damage in that war.”
Following Cotter’s emotional conclusion, Scott Lassar, the lead attorney for Pramaggiore, told the jury that there was simply no evidence of any conspiracy.
“The reason the government didn’t prove their case is because their case was dead wrong,” Lassar said in his typically understated style. “ComEd was not bribing Madigan.”
He ended by urging the jury not to hold it against Pramaggiore because she was the CEO, and to not compromise its verdict because being found guilty of just one of the lesser charges would still be “devastating” for Pramaggiore.
“Anne Pramaggiore is completely innocent,” Lassar said. “End this nightmare for her. Send her back to her family. Find her not guilty on every count.”
An Illinois House committee will look into whether Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan should be disciplined in light of Commonwealth Edison’s agreement with federal prosecutors that alleged the utility engaged in a “years-long bribery scheme” that sought to curry favor with Madigan.
PHOTOS: The career of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan
December 2013
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, gives his opening remarks on the pension reform bill, SB1, on the floor on the House at the Illinois State Capitol, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, in Springfield, Ill. The bill passed both the House and the Senate and is planned to eliminate the state’s $100 billion pension shortfall. (AP Photo/The State Journal-Register, Justin L. Fowler)
March 2014
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, center front, poses for a photo after meeting with police chiefs, sheriffs, and state’s attorneys who are lobbying to maintain funding for early education and youth programs.
March 2014
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, top, and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, bottom, shake hands in 2014 before Quinn delivers the State Budget Address to a joint session of the General Assembly in the House chambers.
April 2014
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, left, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appear before an Illinois House committee meeting in Chicago.
May 2014
Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, left and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago talk at the Capitol in 2014.
December 2013
In this Dec. 5, 2013 file photo, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn hands off a pen during the signing of the pension overhaul legislation bill in Chicago.
January 2015
Retired Justice Alan J. Greiman delivers the oath of office to House Speaker Michael Madigan during the inauguration of the state House in January 2015 on the campus of the University of Illinois Springfield.
January 2015
In this Jan. 12, 2015, photo, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, center left, shakes hands Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan after inauguration ceremonies in Springfield.
February 2015
In this Feb. 4, 2015, file photo, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, right, reaches to shake the hand of House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, after delivering his first state of the state address at the Capitol in Springfield.
August 2015
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks to supporters during a Democrats Day rally at the Illinois State Fair in August 2015 in Springfield.
October 2015
In this Oct. 20 2015 file photo, Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks to lawmakers at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.
April 2016
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks to reporters while heading into Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office for a meeting in April 2016 at the Capitol in Springfield.
May 2016
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, answers questions along with Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, right, during a press conference in front of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office after a leaders meeting on the final day of the spring legislative session at the state Capitol, Tuesday, May 31, 2016, in Springfield, Ill.
November 2016
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks to reporters outside Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office at the Illinois State Capitol during veto session Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Springfield, Ill.
July 2017
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, looks up towards the video boards during the overtime session at the state Capitol in Springfield in July 2017.
July 2017
In this July 26, 2017, file photo, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Springfield.
August 2017
In this Aug. 28, 2017, file photo, Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, looks out over the floor of the Illinois House at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield.
August 2018
In this Aug. 16, 2018, file photo, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks in Springfield, Ill.
January 2019
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, shakes hands with Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, after being elected as the Illinois Speaker of the House during the inauguration ceremony for the Illinois House of Representatives for the 101st General Assembly at the University of Illinois Springfield’s Sangamon Auditorium in January 2019.
January 2019
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, visits with House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, and Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker prior to to the inauguration ceremony for the Illinois House of Representatives for the 101st General Assembly at the University of Illinois at Springfield’s Sangamon Auditorium on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019.
2019
House Speaker Mike Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, is pictured speaking to graduate students in the University of Illinois Springfield’s Public Affairs Reporting program at the Statehouse in 2019.
June 2019
House Speaker Michael Madigan, top row, second from right, D-Chicago, listens to debate on the state budget in the House at the State Capitol in June 2019.
May 2020
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, talks on his cellphone from his desk during an extended session of the Illinois House of Representatives at the Bank of Springfield Center, Saturday, May 23, 2020, in Springfield.
January 2021
In this Jan. 8, 2021, file photo, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appears on the floor as the Illinois House of Representatives convenes at the Bank of Springfield Center, in Springfield, Ill. House Speaker Madigan on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, said he was “suspending” his campaign for a 19th term in the leadership post.
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