‘You preferred secrecy and lies’: Madigan confidant gets 2 years for
role in ComEd bribery scheme
[July 25, 2025]
By Hannah Meisel
CHICAGO — Longtime Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain, who spent years as
a close friend and advisor to ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan,
was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday for his role in a bribery
scheme targeted at the former speaker.
McClain, 77, was the marquee defendant in 2023’s “ComEd Four” trial and
the third of his co-conspirators to be sentenced for their convictions
related to the yearslong scheme. As electric utility Commonwealth
Edison’s top contract lobbyist, McClain pushed for the company to give
jobs and contracts to Madigan allies, which the feds say greased the
wheels for major legislation the company was pushing in Springfield.
Before handing down his sentence Thursday, U.S. District Judge Manish
Shah directly refuted McClain’s repeated defense that he was merely
engaging in normal and legal lobbying when he passed job recommendations
from Madigan to ComEd. Shah said there was “nothing wrong with …
building goodwill to get a seat at the table,” but said that should
never have involved “phony contracts, false invoices and do-nothing
jobs” involved in a cumulative $1.3 million paid to a handful of
Madigan’s political allies.
“You preferred secrecy and lies,” Shah said, pointing out that McClain
had not only been the architect of the ghost contractor program but also
paid one of the speaker’s most valuable political workers under his own
contract from 2012 to 2014. “You preferred Mr. Madigan. You chose his
way and the consequences of that choice are yours to bear.”
Sentencing hearings in the ComEd Four case were put off for more than
two years, in part to let the related corruption trial of Madigan
himself play out. McClain was also a defendant in that trial, but the
former lobbyist walked out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse without a
conviction after the jury delivered a mixed verdict, including
deadlocking on all six counts pertaining to both Madigan and McClain.
Madigan was sentenced to 7½ years in prison last month for his
convictions on bribery and other corruption charges, most of which
stemmed from the ComEd scheme.
In hundreds of FBI wiretapped calls played at both trials, McClain
constantly referenced his relationship with the speaker, which stretched
back to the 1970s when they were both young Democratic state
representatives. As he explained on one recording, he called Madigan
“our friend” in order to minimize others overhearing him talking about
the powerful speaker. In other key calls, he referred to Madigan as his
“real client,” and called himself the speaker’s “agent.”
But for all the secretly taped conversations presented as evidence in
the case, McClain attorney Patrick Cotter on Thursday told the judge:
“You never heard him ask Mike Madigan to help with legislation.”
“He never did that,” Cotter said, echoing his arguments from both trials
that McClain helped ComEd pass legislation through sophisticated and
expensive lobbying campaigns that often took years.
Cotter, who has represented McClain since the day in May 2019 when the
lobbyist’s home was searched as part of a coordinated FBI effort, said
his client’s story hasn’t changed since the feds asked him to cooperate.
“Mike was told six years ago that if he would just say he intended to
bribe (Madigan), he’d be much better off. He could help himself,” Cotter
said. “But he couldn’t say it then, and he can’t say it today. Because
in his heart, he does not believe it is true.”
The attorney said McClain “has paid a very large price” for refusing to
go along with the government’s story “as some others did” — a reference
to government witnesses including former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez,
who agreed to wear a wire on McClain and their colleagues. Marquez
testified in both trials and will likely see his single conspiracy
charge dropped.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur, a prosecutor in both cases,
said McClain’s willingness to be used as a conduit between Madigan and
ComEd — McClain’s biggest client — subverted the autonomy of not just a
private business but a utility regulated by the state of Illinois.
“It allowed Madigan to use ComEd like a benefit fulfillment warehouse,
with Michael McClain taking Madigan’s requests, boxing them up and
delivering them straight to the speaker of the Illinois House,” she
said.
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Longtime Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain, a former close friend
and advisor to ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, leaves the
Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Thursday, July 24, after receiving a
two-year prison sentence. McClain was convicted in 2023’s “ComEd
Four” trial in which McClain and other lobbyists and executives for
electric utility Commonwealth Edison were found guilty of having
orchestrated a yearslong bribery scheme targeted at Madigan.
(Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
Shah echoed MacArthur’s sentiments before handing down his sentence,
referencing how decades ago, a division within Chicago’s Department of
Streets and Sanitation — where the speaker’s father and eventually a
young Madigan worked — was nicknamed “Madigan Electric” for the
speaker’s ability “to get people jobs in that bureau.”
“It seems like with your help, ‘Madigan Electric’ included ComEd
itself,” the judge said.
Beyond the $1.3 million paid out in do-nothing contracts with Madigan
allies, ComEd was also pressured to hire constituents of Madigan’s and
those connected to those in the speaker’s orbit. McClain could be pushy
about those applicants, as well as students from Madigan’s 13th Ward on
Chicago’s Southwest Side, who were hired as interns through a separate
process than competing candidates.
McClain got ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore involved in other matters,
including the speaker’s push for a political ally’s appointment to
ComEd’s board and the renewal of a multi-year contract for a law firm
owned by Democratic fundraiser and Madigan ally Victor Reyes.
MacArthur on Thursday quoted from a 2016 email McClain wrote to
Pramaggiore about the flagging contract negotiations, which he warned
might “provoke a reaction from our Friend.”
“I know the drill and so do you. If you do not get involve(d) and
resolve this issue of 850 hours for his law firm per year then he will
go to our Friend,” McClain wrote of Reyes. “Our Friend will call me and
then I will call you. Is this a drill we must go through?”
Earlier this week, Pramaggiore was also sentenced to two years in
prison, while former ComEd executive John Hooker received an 18-month
sentence last week. Lobbyist Jay Doherty, who agreed to be used as a
pass-through for the clouted do-nothing contractors, faces sentencing in
early August.
All four co-defendants received across-the-board guilty verdicts after
their 2023 trial, but Shah earlier this year tossed the convictions on
most of the bribery counts, only leaving in place an overarching
conspiracy charge. Their sentences are based on that count, as well as
charges involving having falsified ComEd’s books and records in the
co-conspirators’ efforts to further the bribery scheme.
Prosecutors won’t pursue a retrial on the bribery charges and have been
asking Shah to dismiss the counts after each sentencing.
Though the feds had originally asked Shah to impose a near-six-year
sentence on McClain, Pramaggiore’s and Hooker’s lighter sentences —
along with the former lobbyist’s significant health challenges —
prompted prosecutors to downgrade that recommendation to 36 months,
which they announced in court on Thursday.
Unlike hefty fines the judge ordered from Pramaggiore and Hooker, the
judge declined to fine McClain; Cotter had referenced the “financial
ruin” that the last six years had brought on McClain, and Shah agreed
the former lobbyist didn’t have the means to pay a large sum.
McClain was stoic while the judge read his sentence but began crying as
he started hugging his similarly tearful family after the hearing,
starting with his wife, Cinda. Later, McClain left the courthouse with
Cotter and his family, avoiding reporters gathered in the lobby.
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