A federal grand jury this week has indicted former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan and a key ally, Michael McClain, on 22 counts of racketeering, bribery, and extortion, unveiling a long-term corrupt association between the once all-powerful state legislator and Chicago’s electric utility company Commonwealth Edison, the largest utility in the state and an Exelon subsidiary.
Madigan’s downfall began with the unravelling of an arrangement between the utility and the Democratic legislature to bailout two economically-failing nuclear power projects, as reported extensively in The Quad Report over the last two years. The indictment claims that the corrupt relationship between Madigan and his top lobbyist McClain had far deeper roots than the nuclear scandal. Madigan, according to the indictment, routinely traded legislative favors sought by the utility in exchange for no-show jobs for Madigan cronies at the utility.
John Lausch, the federal prosecutor in northern Illinois, said, “The indictment alleges a long-term, multifaceted scheme to use public positions for unlawful private gain.” The indictment said Madigan and McClain walked away with $2.8 million in bribes from the utility. The prosecutors accused Madigan “of leading for nearly a decade a criminal enterprise whose purpose was to enhance Madigan’s political power and financial well-being while also generating income for his political allies and associates.”
Madigan rejected the federal charges. He said in a statement, “I was never involved in any criminal activity. The government is attempting to criminalize a routine constituent service: job recommendations. That is not illegal, and these other charges are equally unfounded.”
Madigan, 79, served 18 terms as speaker in the Illinois legislature until the Commonwealth Edison nuclear scandal forced the legislature to purge him. His power was legendary. He was known as the “Velvet Hammer” for his ability to control the legislature. His daughter Lisa Madigan served as Democratic Illinois attorney general from 2003 to 2019.
Republican state Sen. Terri Bryant told The Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, “When people say he ran the show, there is no possible way to say that in a strong enough way. No bill moved without his approval. No committee functioned without his stamp of approval. He didn’t just turn off the spigot on your bills. He’d turn off the spigot on your campaign money.”
A column in the Chicago Tribune headlined “Michael Madigan case a study of how Illinois’ cozy politics morphs into alleged crime,” commented, “Like so many federal corruption probes before it, the case is replete with powerful political characters, bit players, well-connected lobbyists and big-business clout.
Unlike the investigations that felled two consecutive Illinois governors: Operation Safe Road (Republican George Ryan) and Operation Board Games (Democrat Rod Blagojevich), the ComEd bribery investigation has no official nickname, but still it has reverberated across the state’s political landscape.”
–Kennedy Maize