Four ex-ComEd officials and lobbyists remain convicted of conspiring to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, despite a judge’s decision Monday to toss four of the nine counts in the case in the wake of a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah left intact the conspiracy conviction and other counts against Madigan associate Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty for their roles in the lengthy bribery scheme.
What happens next is unclear. When pressed by the judge after Monday’s ruling, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu noted that sentencing guidelines for the four defendants still call for life sentences. He said a new trial on the four vacated counts might be “somewhat fruitless.” Still, he said he wanted to discuss the ruling with leadership in the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Meanwhile, four counts remaining are tied to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Defense attorneys in the ComEd case have pointed to an executive order from President Donald Trump and a memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for a pause and review of cases tied to the law.
Bhachu made clear to Shah that “our office will comply with whatever instructions we receive from Main Justice” when it comes to the FCPA.
Shah vacated three counts that apply only to McClain and Pramaggiore. He tossed one count that applies to all four defendants. The ruling does not apply to Madigan, who was convicted at the end of a separate trial on Feb. 12.
The four convicted in 2023 were set to be sentenced more than a year ago. But weeks before they were expected to learn their fate, the U.S. Supreme Court picked up a corruption case involving a former mayor of Portage, Indiana. The case raised questions about a federal bribery law that played a key role in the ComEd and Madigan cases.
The Supreme Court eventually found that the bribery law does not also criminalize after-the-fact rewards known as “gratuities.” That ruling prompted bold predictions from defense attorneys that the verdict in the 2023 ComEd trial would eventually be tossed.
The 2023 jury heard from 50 witnesses over six weeks. The panel agreed the four defendants arranged for jobs, contracts and money for Madigan allies in an illegal bid to influence him 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.
Jurors heard that five Madigan allies were paid $1.3 million by ComEd over eight years. The money was paid through intermediaries, including Doherty’s consulting firm, but the men allegedly did little or no work for ComEd.
The recipients were former Alds. Frank Olivo and Michael R. Zalewski, former Cook County Recorder of Deeds Edward Moody, former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo and longtime Madigan campaign worker Raymond Nice.
No charges have been filed against Olivo, Zalewski, Nice or Moody. Acevedo has not been charged as part of the scheme, but he served a six-month prison sentence for tax evasion in a spinoff prosecution.
The feds also pointed to three other schemes allegedly designed to influence Madigan. One involved the 2016 renewal of an unusual contract for the law firm Reyes Kurson in which the firm was assured 850 billable hours a year. Political operative Victor Reyes is a partner at the firm.
Another scheme involved an effort by Madigan and McClain between 2017 and 2019 to put former McPier boss Juan Ochoa on ComEd’s board.
Finally, the defendants were accused of making sure internship positions at ComEd were set aside for people associated with Madigan’s power base in Chicago’s 13th Ward.
The formal allegations first came to light in July 2020 when then-U.S. Attorney John Lausch announced a bribery charge against ComEd. The utility entered into a three-year deal with the feds in which it agreed to pay a $200 million fine and admitted to the conduct at issue.
However, its lawyers formally pleaded not guilty in court, and a judge ultimately agreed to toss the bribery charge in July 2023.
Madigan challenged his indictment based on the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer. However, U.S. District Judge John Blakey declined to toss any counts. He ruled that the approach proposed by prosecutors in Madigan’s case — pursuing a so-called “stream of benefits” argument — would theoretically satisfy their requirement to prove a “quid pro quo.”
Blakey also had the benefit of reviewing the high court’s ruling before instructing the jurors who ultimately convicted Madigan.