Jury continues to deliberate in ComEd bribery trail

[April 27, 2023]  By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – Jurors in the "ComEd 4" federal corruption trial are slated for a third day of deliberations on Thursday after not having reached a verdict despite more than 10 hours in the jury room over two days.

The four defendants are accused of participating in an alleged scheme to bribe former longtime Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan to gain his support for legislation favorable to the utility.

On Wednesday, in what amounted to their first full day of deliberations, the pool of seven women and five men weighed the charges. At one point, they sought clarity from U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber about the purpose of a date listed in the charges.

With all the attorneys for both sides in the courtroom, Leinenweber explained the Nov. 18, 2015, date marks the statute of limitations, which is five years before the filing of the Nov. 18, 2020 indictment. He later added that to find the defendants guilty of those counts, the pool has to find that at least one of the conspirators “committed an overt act in furtherance” of the conspiracy within the five-year timeframe.

“Under the law of statute of limitations, a person may only be prosecuted for a conspiracy if at least one of the overt acts of the conspiracy occurred within 5 years of the indictment being filed,” his response stated.

Charged with conspiring to bribe Madigan in a years long scheme where at least $1.3 million was paid out to associates known to be close to him in exchange for his assistance on legislation deemed to be beneficial to ComEd are Michael McClain, a longtime ComEd contract lobbyist and one of Madigan’s closest confidants; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore; Jay Doherty, a lobbyist and ex-president of the City Club of Chicago; and John Hooker, a longtime veteran of the company who came to be widely regarded as the utility’s point man in Springfield.

The Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse in Chicago on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.
By Brett Rowland | The Center Square

In a separate indictment, Madigan and McClain also face racketeering charges, where the two are slated to go on trial sometime in early 2024.

Among the instances where Madigan is accused of having used his influence to push the utility’s agenda is on the 2011 smart grid bill that paved the way for the company to set a built-in formula for the rates it could charge customers without having to face any pushback from the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Over the course of the six-week long trial where jurors directly heard from about 50 witnesses to go along with a steady stream of secret FBI recordings, defense attorneys maintained that their clients did nothing wrong and that the government is now essentially seeking to criminalize legal lobbying.

During his rebuttal earlier this week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu set out to dispel any such notion, arguing that in aligning themselves with Madigan, all the defendants were required to pay what he called a “corruption toll.”

He said “it was a corruption toll to make sure that Mr. Madigan was not an obstacle to their legislative agenda. And they paid that toll every month, from 2011 to 2019 when they were caught.”