Prosecutors highlight donations in ComEd bribery case

[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.

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.

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

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.