ComEd had to earn Madigan’s favor for legislative success, fed witness says

The federal government’s star witness — former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez — took the stand in the ComEd bribery trial Monday, as prosecutors plan to use secretly recorded FBI conversations to spotlight a key contract used to pay associates of former House Speaker Mike Madigan.

Marquez, who is expected to remain on the stand for several days, agreed to cooperate with investigators in 2019 and secretly recorded his colleagues who are now on trial: former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, former ComEd lobbyist Michael McClain and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty.

The four are accused of arranging for jobs, contracts and money for Madigan’s associates while legislation crucial to ComEd moved through Springfield.

Marquez, who testified he started working for ComEd as a summer intern in 1981 and rose to the rank of senior vice president of government and external affairs, pleaded guilty to a bribery conspiracy in September 2020. 

Marquez testified that ComEd’s relationship with Madigan was “not a very good one” in the early 2000s, with the speaker upset about legislation that would have merged ComEd with another utility company. 

“During that process, Michael Madigan learned that there was some information that was misrepresented by the company, and so he grew not to trust ComEd,” Marquez said, adding the measure never cleared.

But there was much room for improvement when it came to the company’s relationship with Madigan.

“Efforts had to be made to improve the relationship with Michael Madigan and gain his trust,” Marquez said.

Marquez described the Energy Infrastructure and Modernization Act , which passed in 2011, and the Future Energy Jobs Act, which passed in 2016, as being “beneficial” to ComEd. Several ComEd executives have testified the legislation drastically improved service for ComEd customers. They are among the key pieces of legislation at issue in the trial. 

Records show the FBI first approached Marquez on Jan. 16, 2019. Agents showed him evidence that had been gathered against him, and he agreed to cooperate in their investigation. In the weeks that followed, McClain, Pramaggiore, Hooker and Doherty would each be secretly recorded discussing the arrangement between ComEd and Doherty’s firm.

Earlier, prosecutors played eight wiretapped recordings, including one in which Pramaggiore calls McClain to tell him she would be becoming CEO of Exelon Utilities, the parent of ComEd. They included the first FBI recordings jurors have heard featuring Hooker and Pramaggiore.

In a May 8, 2018, conversation, Pramaggiore boasted that Madigan was her first call when she learned of her promotion. 

“This never would have happened without you and John [Hooker] and the speaker,” Pramaggiore told McClain. “Because the only reason I’m in this position is because ComEd has done so well.”

Pramaggiore also called McClain, Hooker and Madigan her “spirit guides.” 

“We love you,” McClain told Pramaggiore. “We want you to do well.”

“I love you guys,” Pramaggiore responded. 

Prosecutors over the weekend argued that it’s become “abundantly clear” that the intent of the four defendants “is the primary issue in dispute in this case.” They wanted jurors to hear recorded comments by McClain and Marquez, in which they discussed an unnamed gas company representative who complained about a push to hire someone at Madigan’s request.

McClain told Marquez in one May 2018 chat that, “not everyone likes getting the calls, right?”

Marquez said, “Yeah, I don’t know if, I don’t know that anybody likes it, but people need to understand, how, what’s behind all this.”

Marquez also said, “I says, ‘That maybe one day you’ll have an ask and this will be remembered.’”

McClain told him, “Right exactly … it all comes … around right?”

The feds say McClain was agreeing with Marquez’s understanding of the connection between hiring people at Madigan’s request and legislative success in Springfield. 

In a later call with Madigan’s son, Andrew Madigan, McClain said, “I just love these people that, they are in a regulatory body, right? And they are offended when people ask for favors. Hello? Dumb sh—ts.”