‘They are offended when people ask for favors. Hello?’: Jurors in trial of former Illinois speaker hear wiretap about pressure in political hires
CHICAGO — Jurors in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan on Thursday heard a wiretapped phone call where the speaker's longtime confidant laid out his rather old-school worldview when it came to political hiring recommendations.
It was May 23, 2018, and McClain was talking to Madigan's son, Andrew, about his frustration over representatives of a gas utility complaining they were being pressured to hire someone recommended by the speaker as part of the state's entrenched pay-to-play system.
"That's what happens when you're in the game," McClain said on the call, which was being secretly recorded by the FBI. "And you never know maybe someday you can ask for a favor. I mean, that's how (it) is, you can't be offended with that. Oh, so you got pressure too? Are you kidding me?"
Later in the same call, McClain continued his diatribe, saying, "I just love these people."
"They're in a regulatory body, right?" McClain said. "And they are offended when people ask for favors. Hello? Dumb (expletive)s."
In another call from the same day, Fidel Marquez, then a top executive with ComEd, also talked with McClain about the practice of political hiring.
"I don't know that anybody likes it, but people need to understand, how, what's behind all this," Marquez said on the recording, which was also played for the jury. I says, 'That maybe one day you'll have an ask and this will be remembered.'"
"Right exactly," McClain responded. "It all comes around right?"
The calls — which were excluded from the ComEd Four trial last year and played publicly for the first time Thursday — put a fine point on allegations that ComEd bent over backwards to please Madigan in order to gain his support on key legislation in Springfield.
Among the favors prosecutors allege ComEd did for the speaker over the years: paying $1.3 million to Madigan allies hired as do-nothing consulting subcontractors, putting Madigan's recommended candidate on the utility's board, hiring a law firm headed by longtime Madigan fundraiser Victor Reyes, and saving coveted slots in its summer internship program for 13th Ward candidates.
The latest wiretaps were played during the third day of testimony for Marquez, one of the prosecution's star witnesses who began working with the FBI in early 2019, after agents confronted him at his mother's home and played wiretapped phone calls of him that they said showed him committing crimes.
Marquez went on to make multiple undercover recordings of his own, both audio and video, that provided the backbone for the biggest single allegation in the indictment: that Madigan supported ComEd-friendly legislation in exchange for a stream of benefits from the utility.
Marquez pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to commit bribery. In exchange for his truthful testimony, prosecutors have said they will recommend a sentence of probation instead of prison time.
In other testimony Thursday, Marquez told the jury about his role overseeing ComEd's summer internship program, saying the company typically set aside up to 10 coveted slots for candidates affiliated with Madigan's 13th Ward.
Marquez said there was a special emphasis by the utility on candidates majoring in science- or technology-related fields.
The resumes were "tendered to me by Mike McClain," Marquez said. Those applicants did not have to compete with the general pool, and often had minimum GPA requirements waived, he said.
Jury has been seeing a relentless stream of emails from Michael McClain over the years pushing Marquez and others over 13th Ward summer internship hires.
"I'm not trying to be difficult..." McClain started one email in 2014, before blasting Marquez with requests for students who were either in the wrong field or had low marks. In another email three years later, McClain forwarded a pair of names to Marquez, writing, "Fidel, please work your magic and get these two kids back on the "hire list," would you?"
In April 2017, McClain emailed Pramaggiore at 4:53 a.m. with subject line "Mmmmmmm." McClain said he feared he "must" bring things to her attention, including that the person handling the ComEd internships "has not been educated about our 'Friend's' pathway."
One of the 2018 interns Madigan had sent over turned out to be a theater major with a GPA of 1.1. Hearing she didn't make the cut, McClain wrote, "Boy we are playing harder this year than in the past."
When Marquez informed him about the GPA issue, McClain wrote back, "Holy mackerel. Even mine were higher than that number!!!!!!!"
Marquez responded: "I'm sure yours were significantly higher. I figured you didn't know. When I was informed I couldn't believe it so I asked them to double check. I don't think our standards are that low..."
Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise.
Both Madigan and McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy, have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Andrew Madigan, whose voice was heard Thursday on the call with McClain, has not been charged with wrongdoing.
But the indictment against his father alleged that in August 2018, the then-House speaker asked Ald. Daniel Solis to help steer insurance business to Andrew during a meeting about the alderman's potential appointment to a lucrative state board.
Solis, another key government witness, is expected to testify later in the trial.
