Mike Madigan | Illinois Speaker of the House website
Mike Madigan | Illinois Speaker of the House website
Jury deliberations in the sweeping ComEd Four jury continued Tuesday on its fifth day of deliberations after seven weeks of testimony.
The jury sent a note to U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber asking to “clarify a possible discrepancy with the use of conjunctions and/or” in the indictment and instructions, according to Chicago Tribune.
Yahoo! Finance reported the clarification was nearly similar to a question sent by the jury in the sexual abuse trial of R. Kelly, which was also in front of Leinenweber. He said he will respond in the same manner he did in that case, which is to follow the instructions.
Arguments in the ComEd corruption trial came to a close last week.
"They weren't amateurs. They weren't playing checkers. They were playing chess," Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said as the case came to close, The Center Square reported. "When it came to chess, Mr. McClain and the others were grandmasters of corruption."
The trial featured over 100 hours of audio collected throughout its duration.
“We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us,” McClain said on one of the recordings. McClain used euphemisms such as “our friend” or “a friend of ours” to refer to Madigan, tapes reveal, according to WTTW.
The case centers on the longtime associate of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, and lobbyist and former City Club of Chicago head Jay Doherty. The four are charged with taking part in a $150 million bribery scandal intended to gain the previous house speaker's favor.
“The defendants sought to bribe Mike Madigan in order to influence his actions in the General Assembly, to ensure that he didn’t take action to hurt the company in the General Assembly and to reward past beneficial conduct to ComEd in the general assembly with legislation that was worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker said in opening statements, Capitol Fax reported.
The 81-year-old Madigan will go on trial in April 2024 for 23 counts of wrongdoing concerning ComEd. He is also dealing with one pertaining to a different bribery scheme involving AT&T. Despite being under investigation, Madigan reportedly took part in the 2022 election campaign. He also lost his leadership positions in the Democratic Party and the General Assembly. Additionally, he transferred the last $10 million from his campaign budget to his defense fund.
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