The Spin: Gov. Pritzker says Speaker Madigan must ‘resign’ if allegations in feds probe of ComEd are true | In Fox interview Trump says Chicago is ‘stupidly run’ | Chicago’s Kanye West qualifies to be on Oklahoma ballot in presidential race
It’s a bombshell: Federal prosecutors filed court documents today in which utility giant ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine for allegedly giving jobs, contracts and payments to allies of longtime Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan as part of a “years-long bribery scheme.”
Madigan is not mentioned by name and hasn’t been charged with a crime. But the records repeatedly refer to Public Official A, who is identified as the House speaker, who is Madigan. His office issued a statement saying the feds have subpoenaed records from his office but stressed that Madigan “has never made a legislative decision with improper motives and has engaged in no wrongdoing here.”
This all came to light in court documents showing Commonwealth Edison cut a deal with federal prosecutors to pay a $200 million fine amid the bribery investigation in what’s known as a deferred prosecution.
Today U.S. Attorney John Lausch, who oversees the Chicago office handling the probe, told reporters that the investigation is “ongoing” and “vibrant” leaving questions about whether a new chapter will be added to Illinois’ book of elected officials being sent to prison.
And Sunday, Fox News will air an interview with President Donald Trump in which he calls Chicago and New York “stupidly run” cities where Democratic mayors can’t get a handle on rising violent crime.
A day earlier, Trump’s White House press secretary referred to Mayor Lori Lightfoot as “derelict” in her duty to stop crime in the city and Lightfoot responded on Twitter with “Hey, Karen. Watch your mouth.”
It’s getting uglier by the day out there, folks.
Welcome to The Spin.
Will ComEd’s $200 million fine in alleged bribery case affect Illinois’ political landscape?
He’s not charged with any wrongdoing. Michael Madigan is not mentioned by name in the criminal documents laying out an alleged bribery scheme against ComEd. But court documents mention “Public Official A,” who is identified as the “house speaker,” making clear the official is Madigan.
Earlier today, the U.S. attorney’s office issued a statement painting a picture of the scheme: ComEd “admitted that it arranged for jobs and vendor subcontracts for Public Official A’s political allies and workers even in instances where those people performed little or no work that they were purportedly hired by ComEd to perform.” Read the court documents and allegations here.
“It’s a big moment in Illinois politics because of the power he (Madigan) wields,” former Chicago-based federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer said.
U.S. Attorney John Lausch said at a downtown Chicago news conference today: “The admitted facts detail a nearly decadelong corruption scheme involving top management at a large public utility, leaders of state government, consultants and several others inside and outside of government. In two words, it’s not good,”
While prosecutors say Madigan’s associates received $1.32 million from 2011-19, they put a value of $150 million on the legislative benefits ComEd received, the Tribune’s Dan Hinkel, Rick Pearson and Alice Yin explain. That included a 2011 bill in which “ComEd was able to more reliably determine rates it could charge customers” and a 2016 renewal of a regulatory law that governs how ComEd does business.
But already there’s discussion about how the case could affect Illinois’ political landscape: “The federal paperwork involving Madigan threatens to roil the fall election season in Illinois, which has become a reliably blue state where the veteran House speaker has used his fundraising power and mapmaking ability to generate veto-proof Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate,” my Tribune colleagues write.
“For years, Illinois Republicans have sought to put their focus on Madigan to try to blame him for decades of state ills but have largely been unsuccessful in using it to motivate voters.”
We’ll see if that changes.
Feds subpoena Madigan for records about AT&T, Walgreens, and Rush University Medical Center In widening probe: WBEZ-FM-91.5 has the details here.
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Gov. Pritzker says Madigan ‘must resign’ if allegations are true
Gov. Pritzker said he was “deeply troubled and frankly I’m furious” about the reports of the federal case against ComEd.
“The speaker has a lot that he needs to answer for — to authorities, to investigators and most importantly to the people of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “If these allegations of wrongdoing by the speaker are true, there is no question that he will have betrayed the public trust and he must resign.” Read more of Pritzker’s comments here.
Mayor Lightfoot, who like Pritzker and Madigan is a Democrat, was asked at an unrelated news conference today if the speaker should resign from both his legislative post and as head of the Illinois Democratic Party, but begged off, saying only “well, that’s not really for me to say.” The Tribune’s John Byrne has the full story here.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, also a Democrat, agreed with Pritzker: “I’m deeply disturbed that we find ourselves in this place - yet again. Today’s reports regarding ComEd and the implication regarding Speaker Madigan’s involvement erode the public’s trust in our elected officials and in government. Corruption has no place here. If what is being alleged is true, then he must step down.”
Illinois Senate GOP Leader Bill Brady said: “At the same time Illinois Democrats are pushing for a massive tax increase, residents are again confronted with Democratic corruption at the highest levels of their state government. If the allegations reported today against Speaker Madigan turn out to be true, then he should resign.”
Illinois Republican Chairman Tim Schneider issued a statement saying: “Our hearts go out to the people of Illinois who are once again left yearning for elected leaders who work for them, not for themselves. The Democratic culture of corruption in Illinois must come to an end.”
President Trump called Chicago and New York “stupidly run” cities putting the blame for violent crime in both places at the feet of their two Democratic mayors during an interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.
In a short clip of the sit-down discussion the cable news network released Friday, Wallace asks Trump about the amount of shootings and homicides in two of the nation’s largest cities — a topic that the president repeatedly has raised in recent weeks — and what he intends to do about it.
“I explain it very simply by saying they’re Democrat-run cities, they are liberally run. They are stupidly run,” Trump says in the interview that is scheduled to air on Sunday. Read my full story here about the interview, which is scheduled to air on Sunday.
Lightfoot’s office didn’t immediately comment. But responding earlier today to a similar slam from Trump’s press secretary, said such criticism from Trump is his attempt to heap blame on Democrats for political purposes in order to “change the subject from their failed leadership.”
Mayor stands by tweet calling Trump spokeswoman Karen, telling her to watch her mouth: The Tribune’s John Byrne has the details here.
Chicago Public Schools proposes hybrid of online and in-person classes for fall, despite union opposition: My Tribune colleagues have the details here. But Evanston’s high school district announced kids won’t be returning to the classroom this fall.
So is Kanye in or out? He’s making a move to be on the Oklahoma ballot.
Chicago native and rap superstar Kanye West, who famously visited President Trump in the Oval Office, has qualified to appear on Oklahoma’s presidential ballot — the first state where he met the requirements before the filing deadline, the Associated Press is reporting.
A representative for West, who once praised Trump and said the two share “dragon energy,” filed the necessary paperwork and paid the $35,000 filing fee Wednesday afternoon, which was the deadline for a spot on the state’s Nov. 3 presidential ballot, according to the Oklahoma Board of Elections.
West already has missed the deadline to qualify for the ballot in several states, and it’s unclear if he has the ability or willingness to collect the signatures required to qualify in others.
The Oklahoma filing came a day after New York Magazine’s “Intelligencer” quoted West adviser Steve Kramer saying “he’s out” and noting that the staff he had hired were disappointed. Read the AP story here.
Civil Rights icon, MLK confidante C.T. Vivian, who worked in Chicago, has died
Civil rights icon C.T. Vivian could just as easily been talking about today’s national reckoning over racial justice as he reflected, just a few years ago here in Chicago, on the emergence of friend Martin Luther King Jr. as the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s reached a crescendo.
“It was a mean and cruel world — how else do you express it? And then came Martin King,” Vivian said, according to a 2017 Tribune story about his address at St. Sabin Catholic Church on the South Side. “He forced the most powerful nation in the world to say no when it wanted to say yes and yes when it wanted to say no,” Vivian noted, explaining how the King-led movement, rooted in peaceful protest, was a major influence on the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Vivan, who moved to Chicago in the late 1960s and headed the ecumenical social justice outreach group Urban Training Center for Christian Mission here and promoted jobs for African Americans in the city, died this morning, the New York Times reports. He was 95. Read about his life story here.
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