Prosecutors highlight donations in ComEd bribery case
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[March 30, 2023]
By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square Contributor
(The Center Square) – Former Commonwealth Edison Senior Vice President
Fidel Marquez told jurors in the ongoing "ComEd Four" corruption trial
on Wednesday that sometimes even he was "surprised" at the level of
demands then-House Speaker Michael Madigan was able to make to keep
their pay-for-play scheme going.
Taking the stand for the third consecutive day as the prosecution’s star
witness at the Federal Dirksen Courthouse, Marquez, who pleaded guilty
in connection with the scheme and is cooperating with prosecutors, told
jurors the state's most powerful politician once demanded that the
utility giant raise at least $450,000 at its annual fundraiser in 2016
to fill the coffers of the Democratic Party of Illinois he controlled,
with the request coming at a time when the company was frantically
pushing a lucrative utility bill that sailed through in Springfield
later that same year.
Marquez noted that the six-figure sum was almost two times the $250,000
target established for such fundraisers in years past by ComEd and its
parent company, Exelon.
Prosecutors argued the steps taken by company leaders were just the
latest in a steady string of them, all aimed at keeping Madigan happy
and the company’s vision intact.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/30/images/ads/current/safetytip_sda_topflight_2023.png)
Longtime Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne
Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and Jay Doherty, a lobbyist
and consultant who once served as the head of the City Club of Chicago,
are all now on trial in a case that charges each of them with playing a
central role in masterminding a scheme to funnel jobs, cash and other
perks from the utility giant to associates of Madigan in exchange for
him taking a favorable stance on legislation viewed to be in the
company’s interest.
Madigan and McClain are also set to go to trial in the spring of 2024 on
a slew of corruption-related charges that include the ComEd bribery
scheme. All four of the defendants in the current trial have pleaded not
guilty.
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The Everett McKinley Dirksen United
States Courthouse in Chicago on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. - By Brett
Rowland | The Center Square
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As part of Wednesday’s daylong testimony, jurors were also shown a
steady stream of emails purported to be penned by Madigan laying out his
constant demands for jobs and contracts for those close to him, among
them the wife of disgraced former City Clerk Jim Laski and the daughters
of former Cook County Democratic Chairman Joe Berrios, who also served
as county assessor.
At the center of it all was McClain, who prosecutors contend served as
the go-between for Madigan and ComEd. During one instance, prosecutors
played a secretly wiretapped call where McClain made Madigan aware that
Marquez was looking to get his blessings before extending a labor
agreement between ComEd and two major unions. Over time, Madigan went on
to green-light the move after touching base with union leaders.
Later in the day, prosecutors teed up another recording that captured
McClain pressing Pramaggiore about finding a job for Tim Mapes,
Madigan’s longtime chief of staff who had been unceremoniously fired
after a widening sexual harassment claim against him came to light.
"I keep thinking about how we can be helpful to [Mapes]," Pramaggiore
said, adding "it’s hard to do anything directly."
Through it all, the defense has argued that all those on trial were
simply doing their jobs as political lobbyists in taking the steps that
they did, adding that there is no evidence that Madigan took any steps
to directly aid ComEd in exchange for benefits and that it seems clear
that Marquez was being coached by investigators on what to prod for in
the conversations he was secretly taping.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/30/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png) |