Power outage at speaker's daughter's place prompted executive response at ComEd

[March 29, 2023]  By Brett Rowland | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Prosecutors painted a picture Tuesday of Illinois' largest electric utility, including its high-level executives, scrambling to appease even the smallest requests made on behalf of the state's most powerful politician.

In one case, Commonwealth Edison's senior vice president of governmental and external affairs responded to an email about potentially creating a position for a summer intern on July 1, well after the company's summer internship program began for the season.

In another, ComEd's then-CEO, Anne Pramaggiore, one of the defendants in the bribery case, responded to a request about summer internships, seeking to find spots for candidates from Chicago's 13th Ward, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's ward.

Fidel Marquez, who served as the utility's senior vice president of governmental and external affairs from 2012 to 2019, said the company went to great lengths to fulfill the summer internship requests from Michael McClain, a former ComEd lobbyist and former state lawmaker who worked closely with Madigan. McClain, who also is a defendant in the case, repeatedly emailed Marquez about summer interns, sometimes at 3 a.m.

ComEd typically hired 100 to 150 college students for summer internships, but Marquez said the company reserved six to 10 internships for candidates from the 13th Ward. Marquez said internship candidates from the 13th ward weren't subject to the same scrutiny or competitive hiring process as other paid interns. In some cases, Marquez waived grade-point average and other requirements for those internships.

One intern candidate had a 1.1 GPA, according to emails prosecutors showed on Tuesday. When Marquez pointed this out to McClain, McClain responded "Holy mackerel, even mine was higher than that number!"

Marquez testified that he considered requests from McClain to be directly from Madigan.

In one instance, Nicole Madigan, at the request of her father, emailed McClain in 2012 because of a power outage at Tiffany Madigan's place. McClain in turn emailed Marquez. When power was restored, McClain responded with an email that said, in part, "Fidel Marquez dropped and did ... Enjoy."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu questioned Marquez through several similar, trivial requests, highlighting that in the ordinary course of business, ComEd executives would not have been involved in such matters. Each time, Marquez said McClain's requests were given special consideration because they came from Madigan.

Prosecutors have accused McClain and Pramaggiore, along with former ComEd lobbyists John Hooker and Jay Doherty, of a multi-year scheme to gain former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s backing for legislation that would benefit the utility's bottom line.

Prosecutors claim the utility gave out jobs, contracts, and payments in exchange for favorable treatment on legislation in Springfield. The defendants have all pleaded "not guilty" to conspiracy, bribery, and willfully falsifying ComEd books and records.

Marquez, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges in September 2020, began working with federal investigators in 2019 after agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited his mother's home and played him a series of wiretapped conversations. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Marquez said he agreed to testify truthfully at the trial in exchange for a recommendation from prosecutors that he would not serve time in prison. Marquez also agreed to secretly record his conversations with the defendants.

Prosecutors played a series of those conversations Tuesday morning.

Marquez spent all of Tuesday on the witness stand. Defense attorneys expect to cross-exam the prosecution's star witness in the coming days.

ComEd agreed to pay $200 million in July 2020 to resolve a criminal investigation into the years-long bribery scheme. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, ComEd admitted it arranged jobs, vendor subcontracts, and payments in a bid to influence Madigan.

Madigan served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021. He served as speaker of the Illinois House from 1983 to 1995 and again from 1997 to 2021. He wielded additional power as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois.

Madigan, who resigned after losing the House speakership in January 2021, has been charged with 23 counts of racketeering, bribery, and official misconduct in a separate case that could go to trial in April 2024.

He has pleaded "not guilty."

Brett Rowland is an award-winning journalist who has worked as an editor and reporter in newsrooms in Illinois and Wisconsin. He is an investigative reporter for The Center Square.