Chicago City Wire

ComEd parent Exelon paid the criminal legal fees for two of the ComEd Four, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. 

“Consistent with practices at many other companies, Anne Pramaggiore and John Hooker, as former company executives, were entitled under corporate bylaws to payment of their attorneys’ fees, which later could be subject to repayment,” ComEd spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier told WBEZ. “Any fees paid by the company are excluded from rates and their cost is not recovered from customers.” 

The rest of the ComEd Four, Michael Madigan's right-hand Michael McClain and lobbyist and former City Club of Chicago head Jay Doherty, "were never company employees and were not entitled to payment of their legal fees.”  

Breymaier said the legal fees were not paid out of customer fees. 

“Rates and the costs that go into them are reviewed by our regulators and others, and no customer pays for those legal fees,” she said. 

Calls for ethics reform have been increasing after ComEd Four were convicted of scheming to pay $1.3 million to Madigan-connected people and companies. The ComEd Four face sentencing in January 2024. As part of the scheme, ComEd provided jobs – some of which were no show – and contracts to those with connections to Madigan who at the time controlled the Democratic Party and had wielded power as the state’s most powerful politician as the longest-serving state House Speaker in the nation. ComEd, the state’s largest utility, engaged in the scheme to influence Madigan to get preferential treatment in the state House. Prosecutors called the foursome "grandmasters of corruption.” ComEd paid a $200 million fine in July 2020 and admitted to the scheme.

The 81-year-old Madigan was in power as House Speaker from 1983 to 1995 and then from 1997 to 2021. He was an Illinois House member from 1971 to 2021 before stepping down amid the scandal. He is charged in a separate filing of 23 counts of public corruption related to the ComEd scandal and is facing a single count of public corruption from a similar scheme with AT&T. Madigan will go on trial in April 2024. Despite being under investigation, the ex-House Speaker reportedly took part in the 2022 election campaign and is still holding onto one elected position as 13th Ward Democratic committeeman, a position he has held since age 27. Madigan has transferred the last $10 million from his campaign budget to his defense fund.

The criticism of corruption against state Democrats comes just after former state senator Tom Cullerton, according to DuPage Policy Journal, was spotted working in Springfield as a lobbyist after serving jail time for taking such a position from the Teamsters.