SPRINGFIELD - U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber announced today his decision in a 25-page opinion that nevertheless required the feds to identify false statements made amid alleged eight-year scheme prosecutors say was designed to show favor with former State Sen. Michael Madigan. The four were accused of arranging for the ex-House speaker’s associates and allies to get jobs, contracts, and money in order to influence Madigan as key legislation worked its way through Springfield. The judge declined to issue federal charges against Madigan's inner circle and rejected arguments in what is described as a key ruling seven months ahead of a trial.
In the 50-page November 2020 indictment were Madigan confidant Michael McClain, ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-top ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and Jay Doherty, the former president of the City Club. The four people had been accused of arranging for Madigan’s associates and allies to get jobs, contracts, and money in order to influence Madigan as key legislation worked its way through Springfield.
Madigan has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing. The scandal ended his record-setting tenure as Illinois House speaker, though, and he has repeatedly been referred to in charging documents as “Public Official A.”
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Attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti wrote that one of the federal laws Doherty was accused of violating “prohibits any prosecution where the object of the bribe is a bona fide job in the usual course of business.”
But Leinenweber wrote Thursday that the group allegedly “offered, or intended to offer, financial incentives as a bribe to a public official to influence state laws governing the public corporation that employed them.”
“The fact that these incentives were laundered partially through jobs does not invalidate the indictment,” Leinenweber wrote. “A company cannot use its payroll line on its accounting ledger to circumvent all Government oversight of public corruption.”
In his ruling Thursday, Leinenweber found that a “quid pro quo” is not an essential element of the crime at issue.
Federal prosecutors also ComEd with bribery in 2020. The utility entered into a three-year deal with prosecutors and agreed to pay a $200 million fine. Another former ComEd executive, Fidel Marquez, pleaded guilty in 2020 to a bribery conspiracy.
A hearing in the case against McClain, Pramaggiore, Hooker, and Doherty is set for March 23. A trial in the case is set for Sept. 12.
