Four people convicted of a lengthy plot to illegally influence ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan appear headed to sentencing in July — a decision by the presiding judge labeled “reckless” by a defense attorney given ongoing legal uncertainty in Washington, D.C.
Madigan ally Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty have long avoided sentencing for their May 2023 convictions, mostly because of machinations at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Now, not only does the nation’s legal landscape continue to shift, but President Donald Trump ordered a pause and review of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — a law used to prosecute the four for falsifying books and records.
Defense attorneys for the four ComEd defendants say they’ve confirmed the prosecution is under review by the Justice Department.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah said during a status hearing Thursday he still wants to move forward by sentencing all four defendants in July. While he didn’t set specific dates during the hearing, he said he wants to sentence Hooker, then Doherty, then Pramaggiore and then McClain.
That prompted pushback from McClain attorney Patrick Cotter. Cotter told Shah it would be “reckless to proceed with sentencing when you know this review is happening.” He said he wasn’t sure what relief would be available if the Justice Department’s review turns out to be favorable to the defendants.
Shah wasn’t persuaded.
“My view is that it’s more important to proceed to conclusion than to wait on uncertain and, frankly, amorphous deliberations happening outside of my purview,” Shah said.
Earlier, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker argued, “there is a strong public interest in closure to this case, which has been pending for more than four years.”
“At every turn, defendants have sought to delay and to string this out as long as possible,” Streicker said.
A jury in May 2023 found that the four defendants arranged for jobs, contracts and money for Madigan allies in an illegal bid to influence Madigan as ComEd’s legislation moved through Springfield. The bills ultimately took ComEd from a “dire” financial situation in the 2000s to record earnings in 2022.
A separate jury last month convicted Madigan for his role in the same scheme, among other crimes. McClain faced trial for a second time with Madigan, but the jury failed to reach any verdict regarding the accusations against him then.
Meanwhile, McClain and the other three ComEd defendants very nearly faced sentencing in January 2024. Weeks before they were expected to learn their fate, the Supreme Court picked up a corruption case involving James Snyder, a former mayor of Portage, Indiana. His case raised questions about a federal bribery law that played a role in the ComEd and Madigan cases.
The high court ultimately limited the feds’ use of it.
Madigan’s indictment stood. But earlier this month, Shah overturned four of the ComEd defendants’ bribery convictions. Each of the four remain convicted of one count of conspiracy and four counts of falsifying books and records.
Then, in a new development Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of former Chicago Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, finding that a law he’d separately been convicted under criminalizes false statements — but not misleading ones.
Defense attorneys in the ComEd case said that ruling further undermines their clients’ remaining convictions, but prosecutors disagree.
Still, Thursday’s hearing mostly revolved around plans to sentence the four ComEd defendants, as well as the Justice Department’s ongoing review of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Prosecutors last week filed a status report under seal, and it apparently detailed their position on next steps. It’s unclear why that report was filed under seal, and Shah ordered it unsealed during Thursday’s hearing.
Pramaggiore attorney Scott Lassar told the judge that prosecutors wanted to proceed to sentencing, while also reserving any decision on whether to retry the four defendants on the overturned bribery counts. He objected.
“It sounds like they’re going to wait and see what the sentence is, and then they’ll decide whether they’ll dismiss the counts,” Lassar said.
But Shah asked Streicker, “if I set sentencing dates and there is a sentencing on the counts of conviction, will the government dismiss the remaining counts?”
Streicker told him, “yes, that would be our intention.”