‘I control the contract’: Longtime Madigan precinct captain Ed Moody takes stand in ‘ComEd Four’ bribery trial, says speaker set him up with lobbying deal

A legendary precinct captain for former House Speaker Michael Madigan told jurors in the “ComEd Four” bribery trial Tuesday that the speaker got him a $45,000-a-year contract with one of the utility’s top lobbyists but made it clear the deal would disappear if he stopped working on campaigns.

Edward Moody, for years one of Madigan’s top door-knockers, recounted without hesitation the Democratic speaker’s warning when he told Moody about the arrangement: “I control that contract and if you stop doing political work, you’ll lose that contract.”

That message was reinforced when Moody met with Michael McClain, one of Madigan’s longtime confidants, at Huck Finn Restaurant on the Southwest Side. Moody testified McClain told him the contract was “a hell of a plum and that I owe the speaker big.”

Under the deal arranged by the speaker, Moody testified, he spent the next seven years collecting monthly checks from ComEd, funneled through a series of Madigan’s associates, mostly for doing nothing.

Moody also said he sought Madigan’s blessing for two public offices — county commissioner and as recorder of deeds — because “politically, he would be the boss” and had the power to “put a brick” on any potential appointment.

Moody’s testimony, which came near the end of the prosecution’s case in chief, was crucial because he’s the only one of the Madigan-approved “subcontractors” allegedly paid by ComEd to cooperate with the government.

On cross-examination, defense attorneys attempted to paint Moody as an opportunist who told investigators what they wanted to hear because he was scared that he was going to be charged himself.

Moody said he received an immunity letter from prosecutors in exchange for his testimony, meaning if he “simply tells the truth” the evidence can’t be used against him.

Defense attorney Patrick Cotter, who represents McClain, tried to push Moody about why he didn’t tell prosecutors in all his debriefings about 200 hours of canvassing he did in Chicago Ridge and other southwest suburbs to see what homeowners thought of ComEd’s new smart grid program.

“Was it intentional, sir?” Cotter asked.

“No,” Moody replied.

Moody said he told prosecutors about the canvassing assignment but didn’t recall the amount of time he’d actually spent going door to door for McClain because he spends so much time knocking on doors for campaigns.

Charged in the ComEd Four case are McClain, a retired lobbyist; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore; ex-ComEd executive and lobbyist John Hooker; and former ComEd contract lobbyist Jay Doherty, the ex-president of the City Club civic group.

The indictment alleged the four defendants steered $1.3 million in payments from ComEd to Madigan-approved subcontractors — including Moody — who did little or no work in a bid to win the speaker’s influence over the utility’s legislative agenda in Springfield.

The indictment also alleged the defendants schemed to hire a clout-heavy law firm run by political operative Victor Reyes and stack the utility’s summer internship program with candidates sent from the 13th Ward.

The four on trial have all pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers have contended the government is trying to turn legal lobbying and job recommendations into a crime.

Madigan and McClain face a separate racketeering indictment that is set for trial next year.

Moody took the witness stand Tuesday in the fifth week of the high-profile trial. After his four and a half hours on the stand, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber that they plan to rest their case in chief on Wednesday morning.

Pramaggiore’s lawyers will then begin their defense, followed by Hooker, Doherty and McClain.

Moody’s emergence as a government cooperator sent shock waves throughout Democratic circles, from Madigan’s base of power on Chicago’s Southwest Side to the insiders hanging out in the Illinois Capitol’s rotunda.

Wearing glasses and a gray suit with a polka-dot tie, he talked in a very relaxed and polished fashion on direct examination, sometimes jumping the gun with his answer before hearing the full question.

“Sorry, I feel like I’m campaigning,” Moody joked after Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur asked him at one point to slow down.

Moody began by telling jurors about growing up in the Chicago area, where he had a variety of jobs before going to work for Madigan’s political operation.

“I worked for White Castles, I worked for a security firm, maintenance,” Moody said.

After moving to Chicago’s Southwest Side, he and his twin brother, Fred, when they were in their 20s, would sometimes run into Madigan during their long walks in the West Lawn neighborhood.

“My twin brother and I loved to walk. We literally could walk four, five hours at a crack,” he said. When they’d bump into Madigan, he’d pause to talk politics, Moody said.

“He responded well,” Moody testified.

Moody said he and his brother volunteered on then-U.S. Rep. Bill Lipinski’s campaign for Congress in the early 1990s, helping circulate petitions in his redrawn district that pitted him against another Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. Marty Russo.

Shortly after, the twins met with Madigan at the speaker’s ward office on 65th and Pulaski Road, where it was decided they’d be dispatched as co-precinct captains in the 54th Precinct of the 13th Ward.

Later, after a win for an Illinois House seat in a Republican-dominated suburban district, Madigan met personally with the Moody brothers. He told them they were “Off the charts,” Moody testified. “We did really well.”

Moody said he and his brother eventually were ranked first among the more than 70 precinct captains that handled the ward at the time.

But while he loved campaigning, Moody said there was also a “fear component” to it that comes with the machine politics.

“The speaker had, you know, very high standards, and he could punish you,” he said.

Being a precinct captain, Moody said, was “really about building relationships and building rapport and almost becoming a member of their family.”

“But it was also about winning elections, connecting them to city services, county services, state services,” he said.

As their successes piled up, Moody said, he was given a variety of politically connected jobs, including with the county highway department and as a jury coordinator for the chief judge in the Bridgeview courthouse.

He said he did not have to apply for the courthouse job: “Madigan got it for me.”

“I wasn’t, like, traditionally interviewed because I already had the job,” said Moody, who worked in the Bridgeview branch for 23 years and performed political work in evenings and on weekends.

By 2012, however, Moody testified he was looking to boost his overall income and asked Madigan for a lobbyist job. After Madigan failed to respond for several months, Moody said he was insulted and demanded a meeting with the speaker at his ward office.

“It was tense,” Moody said about the rare, angry confrontation with his boss. “I told him I said you know, are you upset with us? What did we do wrong?”

Madigan was upset too, Moody said. “He said calm down. He said you’re gonna get your contract. You’re gonna make your $45,000 a year.” Moody testified that’s when he was sent to McClain.

Moody said McClain handed him a list of legislators to call and ask if they had any issues with ComEd.

Madigan was on the list, a point Moody said was odd and “foolish” because McClain and Madigan knew each other so well. Moody said his instructions included checking in with Madigan’s hand-picked 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn.

Moody testified that after two years, he received a call from McClain informing him that his payments were going to be moved over to Doherty’s contract with ComEd.

“I didn’t know who he was,” Moody said. He said he met with Doherty at Maggiano’s restaurant, where he was given a manila envelope with invoices Doherty wanted him to use.

“He said I was famous,” Moody testified about the meeting with Doherty. “He told me to keep knocking on doors.” Moody said he was paid $4,500 a month by Doherty — a bump up from his contract with McClain — even though Doherty never gave him a single assignment.

On cross-examination, Doherty’s attorney, Michael Gillespie, suggested Doherty’s “knocking on doors” comment was referencing the canvassing he’d done for McClain about ComEd service.

But Moody testified it was clear he was to continue his political activities for Madigan.

When Moody was appointed Cook County commissioner in 2016, he had to be moved from Doherty’s account because of the potentially bad optics, according to trial testimony.

Over concerns of a conflict with Doherty lobbying county officials, Moody testified he had a conversation with the speaker, who told him to “move forward with the appointment and he’d find me another contract.”

Moody testified his payments were first moved to Shaw Decremer, a Democratic House staffer for Madigan who became a lobbyist. Moody said he not only did absolutely nothing for Decremer, he only actually saw him one time, walking down the street talking on his cellphone.

Moody said Decremer looked busy and only had time to give him a “thumbs-up.”

Two years later, his contract moved again, this time to lobbyist John Bradley, a former House Democrat who’d served on Madigan’s leadership team, Moody said. Again, he said he didn’t do any work for the monthly checks Bradley sent him.

That relationship ended with Moody’s ascension to the recorder of deeds position. On Dec. 7, 2018, McClain called Madigan to ask whether they should alter Moody’s deal, given his new role in an elective position.

“Yeah that might be a good idea, to pull back,” Madigan said on the call, which was played after Moody’s testimony.

“You want me to call Ed and tell him?” McClain asked.

“Yeah sure,” Madigan replied.

Listen to the audio:

McClain called Bradley the next day, saying, “I did talk to Himself about Moody,” referring to Madigan by code. “And Himself thinks maybe we should stop it.”

McClain then suggested Bradley send Moody a check worth a couple of weeks of pay in December and disguise it as a bonus, writing something like, “Merry Christmas Ed, from the Bradleys.”

Listen to the audio: