‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it with those guys’: Jurors see undercover videos of Michael Madigan associates in ‘ComEd Four’ trial
Shortly after being confronted by FBI agents in 2019 and deciding to cooperate in an ongoing bribery probe, then-ComEd Senior Vice President Fidel Marquez secretly videotaped a lunch meeting in Springfield with one of House Speaker Michael Madigan’s most trusted confidants.
The FBI had instructed Marquez to ask Madigan’s associate, Michael McClain, what he should tell ComEd’s new CEO about their scheme to funnel payments to a roster of Madigan-approved allies through a consulting company owned by Jay Doherty, a longtime ComEd contract lobbyist.
Marquez’s hidden recorder was rolling as McClain munched on pizza at Saputo’s, a popular restaurant in Springfield frequented by the political crowd — including Madigan himself.
“The contract with Doherty is under the CEO’s budget,” Marquez said on the video recording, as McClain paused to wipe his hands and sip a diet soda. “I never had to touch it. Now somebody needs to talk to Joe (Dominguez) about it. ... I don’t know what they do. I don’t know if I can tell Joe what they do.”
McClain explained that the payments were going to former Chicago aldermen and precinct captains. “It’s a favor,” he said. And if the IRS ever asked questions about their work, “Doherty’s got to prove it,” not them, McClain added.
Marquez agreed. However, he said he didn’t know how Dominguez, a former federal prosecutor from New Jersey who’d taken over as ComEd’s top executive, would react.
“Right. I don’t either,” McClain replied. “And he could just as easily require something in writing, but I would say to you: Don’t put anything in writing.”
The recording was among a series of pivotal conversations played for the jury Tuesday in the “ComEd Four” trial, where four Madigan associates, including McClain, are accused of conspiring to bribe the then-powerful speaker in order to win his influence over ComEd legislation in Springfield.
The videos, along with dozens of recorded telephone conversations and internal emails, have taken jurors to the heart of the conspiracy allegations, and have also painted a stark portrait of power politics as it was played under Madigan’s Democratic regime, with a stream of jobs and benefits flowing from ComEd to people connected to the speaker’s operation.
In addition to the nearly $1.3 million paid to Doherty’s subcontractors, Marquez testified Tuesday about related schemes to get former McPier boss Juan Ochoa appointed to ComEd’s board even though he was held in very low regard by many in the Hispanic community, and to hire a slew of summer interns sent from Madigan’s 13th Ward, including kids whose grades were well below the company’s standards.
Other potentially damaging videos played in court Tuesday included a conversation where Doherty acknowledged to Marquez that the Madigan guys he’d been paying as subcontractors did nothing for him on a day-to-day basis but “keep their mouth shut.”
And weeks later, Marquez recorded a meeting at ComEd’s offices where he, McClain and longtime ComEd lobbyist John Hooker explained to Dominguez that the Madigan subcontracts were merely a different version of the state’s old-style political patronage system, which started with the utility hiring meter readers from Madigan’s ward decades ago.
“So, that’s just what we’ve, we’ve always done for, good lord, over 20 years now,” McClain said. “Because we can’t really do meter readers, we don’t have ‘em any more.”
McClain, Doherty, Pramaggiore and Hooker are all indicted on charges of bribery conspiracy in the case, which is now in its third week.
Madigan and McClain, meanwhile, are facing separate racketeering charges alleging an array of corrupt schemes, including the bribery plot by ComEd.
The defense has argued that what prosecutors say was bribery was actually nothing more than honest, legal political lobbying, and that there was no evidence Madigan did anything to directly help ComEd in exchange for benefits that flowed to his cronies.
Attorneys for the defendants, who will get the chance to cross-examine Marquez beginning on Wednesday, have sought to paint him as an opportunist who cooperated with the government to save his own skin.
They’ve also pointed out that Marquez was being coached by investigators on what to say in the conversations he recorded.
Marquez began his testimony Monday by telling the jury about being confronted by the FBI in January 2019. After FBI agents played some of the wiretapped recordings he was captured on, he decided to cooperate and make secret recordings of his colleagues.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of bribery conspiracy and faces up to five years in prison, but if he testifies truthfully, prosecutors will recommend no jail time, he said.
At the outset of his testimony Tuesday, Marquez was asked why he agreed to cooperate.
“After hearing those wiretap recordings, um, I uh, uh, with all these hires and requests, it was something, I understood why were were doing it,’ Marquez said. “I didn’t like it. ... But I was concerned.”
“Were you scared?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu asked.
“Yes,” Marquez testified.
Another video played Tuesday morning showed a meeting at Marquez’s ComEd office on Feb. 13, 2019, where Doherty explained the origins of the scheme to slip the cadre of Madigan-backed subcontractors onto his own lobbying contract with ComEd.
On the video, Doherty said his contract with ComEd goes “all the way back to Frank (Clark),” the former CEO. “I started working for Commonwealth Edison, thank you Lord, in 1985,” Doherty said, pausing to look skyward.
Then Doherty levels with Marquez, saying, “This is just you and me talking. I don’t even know who else knows this.”
He then told Marquez a story about getting a call one day years ago from Hooker, who said he had a subcontractor, former Ald. Frank Olivo from Madigan’s 13th Ward, who needed to be paid through Doherty’s firm.
”'Jay, I’ve got a sub for you,’” Doherty recalled Hooker said. “‘We’re gonna pay him every month and you just pay him.” As he spoke, Doherty silently held up four fingers, which Marquez said indicated Olivo was paid $4,000 a month.
From there, Doherty ticked off other subcontracts — with Ed Moody, a former Cook County Recorder of Deeds and longtime 13th Ward precinct captain; Ray Nice, another 13th Ward precinct captain; and retiring 23rd Ward Ald. Mike Zalweski, a longtime Madigan ally.
Over the years, Doherty’s contract with ComEd ballooned to $400,000 a year, with much of it going to pay Madigan political friends, according to trial testimony.
Doherty joked on the video that the extra cash running through his firm made it look like “I make a gillion dollars.”
As he had with McClain, Marquez asked Doherty for details about what work the subcontractors did, under the guise that Dominquez would be inquiring since the funds had come from Pramaggiore’s budget.
“What do you have them doing?” Marquez asked.
“Well, not much, to answer the question,” Doherty said. “... They keep their mouth shut, and you know. But do they do anything for me on a day-to-day basis? No.”
Also on video, Doherty said ComEd’s money “comes from Springfield” and that the contract should not be “tinkered” with. He said he has “every reason to believe” that McClain talks directly with Madigan about it.
“My bottom-line advice would be, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ with those guys,” Doherty said.
Three weeks later, Marquez video recorded another meeting, this time with him, Hooker, McClain and Dominguez, where they informed Dominguez about the arrangement.
McClain explained the system of subcontractors evolved over the years as Madigan and other politicians no longer had opportunities to recommend political friends to ComEd through a sort of old-school patronage operation because basic jobs, such as for meter readers, were no longer needed.
McClain said it wasn’t just Madigan who asked the company to find jobs. McClain also explained that former Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, had recommended that ComEd hire former suburban GOP Sen. Tom Walsh as a lobbyist and he was added to the company lineup in Springfield.
“That’s what we do, right?” McClain said.
McClain then ticked off the reasons they were on the payroll.
“So what we have is ... Zalewski. Used to be an alderman … and his son is chairman of the revenue committee,” McClain told Dominguez on the video. “Um, Ray Nice, who’s a top three precinct committeeman. ... They’re all, they’re all good, solid people.”
Dominguez eventually approved keeping the subcontractors on Doherty’s contract, equating their deal to a lobbying team that doesn’t work full speed all year but then can make things happen at a “magic moment” that makes keeping them on board all worth it.
Jurors also listened to a recorded call between Marquez and Pramaggiore from Feb. 16, 2019, that contained candid conversation after she left ComEd to become CEO of Exelon Utilities, including how she wanted Marquez to avoid seeing the subcontractor issue blow up while ComEd still had legislation pending in Springfield.
“We do not want to get caught up in a, you know, disruptive battle where, you know, somebody gets their nose out of joint ... and then we get forced to give ‘em a five-year contract because we’re in the middle of needing to get something done in Springfield,” she said.
When asked who Pramaggiore was worried about getting their “nose out of joint,” Marquez said: “Michael Madigan.”
Also concerned about company dynamics, Pramaggiore worried that Dominguez is “going to do a victory lap” and “have another thing on” her, viewing her business rival as “a very insecure person.”
Listen to the audio:
Prosecutors also played a secretly recorded video Marquez made of him at lunch with Hooker at the Union League Club in late January 2019. It appeared as though the camera was hidden in Marquez’s shirt because the top of Hooker’s head and eye glasses were often the only thing visible. At times, the camera pointed toward the ceiling.
“(Doherty’s) got three subs with him right now. You know they come and go. I gotta think how to sit down with Joe and explain that,” Marquez says on the recording with Hooker. “I totally expect him to push back.”
Marquez testified that over the course of eight years, ComEd paid Doherty’s subcontractors hundreds of thousands of dollars, even though they had no particular expertise and ultimately did virtually no work for the utility. Some seemed to be downright incompetent, Marquez said.
“I know that they were brought on as a favor to Michael Madigan,” Marquez testified Tuesday. “For Madigan to see ComEd positively. So that he could perhaps be helpful for our legislative agenda in Springfield.”
Marquez returned to talking about how putting Ochoa on ComEd’s board was another example of trying to please Madigan, saying Pramaggiore first called in 2018 when McClain requested considering him “for one of our open positions on the board.”
Marquez said he, Dominguez, and Ochoa met for a “get-to-know-you” dinner at III Forks restaurant in Chicago in September 2018. The dinner was arranged by Pramaggiore, who by then was at Exelon, Marquez said.
Once word got out that Ochoa was getting lined up for the $78,000-a-year board job, however, Marquez said reaction was “very negative.”
“Juan Ochoa, especially within the Latino committee at large, wasn’t well liked and well respected ... the opinions stemmed from that,” Marquez said.
Marquez also testified extensively about an alleged scheme by Madigan, through McClain, to repeatedly and aggressively push to place students in ComEd’s summer internship program who had previously worked in the 13th Ward headquarters doing jobs like shoveling snow and took on other menial tasks.
Marquez said ComEd typically hired 100 to 150 interns each year, mostly university students studying math, science, or engineering and set minimum grade point averages to qualify.
Marquez described how Madigan had his own internship pipeline, and McClain worked hard to get 10 or more internships set aside for the 13th Ward as a “favor” to Madigan. “Because we wanted to stay in a favorable light with Michael Madigan, a favorable light for our legislative agenda,” Marquez said.
Marquez testified “occasionally” one of the 13th Ward candidates didn’t meet GPA requirements but Marquez would waive them. One of the interns Madigan sent had a GPA of 1.1, according to emails shown to the jury.
Hearing she didn’t make the cut, McClain, who hadn’t been notified of the student’s grades, wrote, “Boy, we are playing harder than we have in the past.”
When Marquez told him about the low GPA, McClain wrote back, “Holy Mackerel. Even mine were higher than that number!!!!!!!!!”
Prosecutors also presented evidence — mostly in emails — that showed how the McClain-Madigan-ComEd job train included hiring a disbarred lawyer to seeking jobs for the sons of Tom Donovan, once Richard J. Daley’s top aide, who later ran the Chicago Board of Trade.
Other requests illustrated the closeness of the McClain and Madigan’s family — as well as the pettiness of some of the requests made to Marquez. In one instance in 2012, Madigan’s daughter, Nicole, even emailed McClain about a power outage.
“F.Y.I. Dad asks that I send this email to you. Tiffany’s power went out,” she wrote.
McClain forwarded the email to Marquez. Later that day, he emailed Nicole back with good news:
“Power is back on. Fidel Marquez dropped and did... Enjoy.”
