Defendants found guilty on all counts in ‘ComEd Four’ trial; juror says panel wanted ‘politics to run in a correct manner’
CHICAGO — In a sweeping verdict sure to reverberate in Illinois power circles, a federal jury on Tuesday convicted the “ComEd Four” defendants on all charges related to a conspiracy to bribe ex-Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan to win his support for the utility’s legislative agenda in Springfield.
Found guilty of bribery conspiracy and falsification of business records were former ComEd contract lobbyist Michael McClain, 75, a longtime Madigan confidant; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, 64; ex-ComEd executive John Hooker, 74; and Jay Doherty, 69, who worked as a lobbyist for ComEd for 30 years and served as president of the City Club of Chicago civic forum.
The jury’s highly anticipated decision, which came in the eighth week of trial, spelled bad news for Madigan, since he and McClain face a separate racketeering indictment brought in March 2022 that’s made up in large part of the same ComEd bribery allegations. Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial in April next year.
It’s clear Madigan’s defense team faces particularly hard sledding due to his name recognition and a public weary of the state’s notoriously shadowy politics.
After the verdict, juror Amanda Schnitker Sayers, a veterinarian who lives in Chicago, told reporters the panel was well aware of Madigan’s stature in the case.
“I don’t want to speak for the whole jury about Madigan — we tried not to discuss him as far as outside of this case,” Schnitker Sayers said in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. “But his involvement with this case of course was key, and our perception was that he really
