Former AT&T exec testifies as Madigan corruption trial enters new phase

[December 19, 2024]  By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Defense attorneys have begun making their case at the corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain.

After the government rested its case Wednesday, McClain’s defense team called former AT&T Illinois executive Steve Selcke to testify.

Selcke discussed lobbying and said his full-time job with AT&T involved lobbying members of the Illinois General Assembly. Selcke said he would periodically receive job recommendations from lawmakers. Selcke said he would hope to get credit if he was able to satisfy a lawmaker’s request.

His team made efforts to lobby Madigan’s office and labor unions were important to the speaker because of their campaign support, Selcke said.

Selcke said McClain had a good reputation as a lobbyist.

McClain attorney John Mitchell asked Selcke about carrier-of-last-resort (COLR) legislation, which obligated AT&T to provide service to those who wanted it. Selcke said AT&T began seeking COLR relief in earnest around 2011. Selcke said that by 2017, Illinois and California were the only U.S. states that had not passed COLR relief. Selcke said COLR relief and small-cell legislation were at the top of AT&T’s list.

Selcke testified that, in early 2017, after former state Rep. Eddie Acevedo, D-Chicago, had left office and was looking for work, two members of the Illinois House Republican caucus told him that if AT&T was going to hire Acevedo as a lobbyist, they might not look favorably on the company’s legislative priorities.

Selcke discussed emails related to AT&T agreeing to McClain’s request to hire Acevedo through a contractor. Selcke said the objective was to find a legitimate task or appropriate activity for Acevedo to perform.

Selcke said he did not have the feeling that offering $2,500 to Acevedo would result in Madigan allowing passage of the COLR relief bill for AT&T. Selcke said none of his AT&T colleagues told him they intended to trade the $2,500 payments to Acevedo in exchange for Madigan allowing the COLR legislation to pass.

Selcke said AT&T did not want Acevedo to register as a lobbyist because that information would become publicly available.

When Selcke and other AT&T officials met with Acevedo, Selcke said Acevedo’s first question was how much he would be paid and that Acevedo was insulted when he was told it would be $2,500 per month. Selcke said the meeting went downhill once Acevedo found out the amount of AT&T’s offer.

Selcke told Mitchell that AT&T’s lobbying campaign for COLR relief was expensive and extensive. Selcke told Mitchell he believed it was millions of dollars over a period of years.

Selcke discussed a meeting with FBI agents when they came to his home in 2019. He said he thought his wife was kidding when she told him the FBI was there to see him.

Selcke said he had his attorneys present at subsequent meetings. He confirmed that government investigators provided him with an immunity letter.

Madigan attorney Todd Pugh asked Selcke about AT&T’s offer to Acevedo in 2017 and suggested that Acevedo might be helpful with the General Assembly’s Latino caucus. Selcke agreed.

Selcke said AT&T officials did not want to “rock the boat” during the 2017 COLR bill negotiations and upset the speaker’s office. When Pugh asked Selcke if there even was a boat, Selcke answered, “We knew there was a boat.”

Selcke told Pugh that union support was critical to COLR legislation, which passed over a veto by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner.

In cross-examination with government attorney Julia Schwartz, Selcke said Madigan’s support was critical to getting the COLR bill passed and said the speaker had the ability to prevent legislation from getting through the House.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, next to his defense attorney being followed by a protester outside the federal court building in Chicago Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024.
- Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

Selcke agreed with Schwartz that McClain served as an emissary for Madigan.

Selcke said Acevedo represented his district well but was at times very partisan. Selcke said Acevedo could become belligerent or loose-lipped when he had too much to drink.

Prosecutors played their final recordings in the case late Tuesday afternoon, including a wiretapped call from Madigan to McClain on May 10, 2018.

“You were saying that the gaming companies may be in the market ot hire people, and Eddie Acevedo was in to see me, looking for work,” Madigan told McClain.

In the last recording prosecutors played before resting their case, Madigan brought up union opposition to AT&T’s small cell legislation on May 16, 2018.

“AT&T has got Don Finn from Local 134 as an opponent to the bill. Do you know, is there anything that AT&T is trying to get around here?” Madigan asked McClain.

“I don’t think so, but let me inquire without them knowing it,” McClain answered.

“OK,” Madigan said.

Connie Mixon, professor of Political Science and director of the Urban Studies Program at Elmhurst University, said the defense might argue that most people and organizations try to curry favor with legislators.

“Any sort of organization or person that needed legislation or something from the state would try to build relationships,” Mixon told The Center Square.

Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday morning after reading a stipulation about Acevedo’s son, Alex Acevedo, having a separate subcontract with the Dewey Square Group, which had a contract with AT&T’s Public Relations Group in Washington D.C. The stipulation detailed payments Acevedo’s Apex Strategy LLC received from AT&T in 2017 and 2018.

Madigan and McClain are facing 23 counts of bribery, racketeering and official misconduct in connection with a scheme prosecutors called, “The Madigan Enterprise.”

Prosecutors allege that ComEd and AT&T Illinois gave out no-work or little-work jobs and contract work to those loyal to Madigan to get legislation passed that would benefit them in Springfield.

McClain and ComEd executives and lobbyists were convicted last year in a related trial, and ComEd agreed to pay $200 million in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors.

In 2022, AT&T agreed to pay $23 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the government.

Madigan served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021 and was speaker for all but two years between 1983 and 2021. He chaired the Democratic Party of Illinois for 23 years.

McClain was a longtime lobbyist who previously served as a state representative in Illinois’ 48th district from 1973 to 1982.

The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday morning at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. A holiday break will take effect once the court recesses at the end of the day Thursday.

Judge Robert Blakey said the court would not be in session during the week of Christmas. He said he would hold a charge conference for attorneys and parties “all day long” on Dec. 30. Blakey told jurors they would return Jan. 2.