(The Center Square) – Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said he is not responsible for who gets hired, has never made legislative decisions based on improper motives and the notion of tying consequential legislation to the employment of a few individuals is “seriously mistaken.”
That’s the latest statement from the longest-serving statehouse speaker in the country after an ongoing patronage scandal involving a utility and a civil RICO lawsuit filed by a group of attorneys against both Madigan and the utility, ComEd.
Madigan’s statement Tuesday afternoon came multiple requests for comment on a number of issues, including Madigan being referred to as “Public Official A” in the U.S. Department of Justice’s deferred prosecution agreement with ComEd. In that agreement, the utility agreed to pay a $200 million fine for its role in a patronage scandal to curry favor with Madigan in exchange for favorable legislation.
A group of attorneys Monday filed a RICO case against ComEd and Madigan with the deferred prosecution agreement as a basis.
“By their own admission, the plaintiffs’ lawyers filed this lawsuit for political purposes,” Madigan said in a statement sent by a spokesperson. “I have occasionally made job recommendations for good people seeking jobs, believing that the applicant could and would do successful work. That is commonplace in all industries. Sometimes the applicant is hired, and sometimes the applicant is not hired. The decision is the employer’s and I do not act differently either way. And I have not, and would not, make a job recommendation believing that the applicant wouldn’t be asked to perform work by their employer.”
Prosecutors claimed ComEd hired Madigan’s associates for jobs that required little or no work.
Madigan, who’s been the House Speaker for all but two years since 1983, maintained he had done nothing wrong.
“The notion that the passage of two consequential pieces of energy legislation were tied to the hiring or retention of a few individuals is seriously mistaken,” he said. “Those bills had broad support — from Democrats and Republicans; from the other legislative leaders, sponsors, and individual legislators; and from labor supporters, consumer advocates, and environmentalists. The bills couldn’t have passed otherwise, and they were the product of years of deliberation, negotiations, and consensus-building. Nothing I or my staff did in the course of those bills was influenced by a company’s decision to hire or retain a person, nor did I ever suggest that such a decision could influence me.“
The RICO lawsuit seeks to prohibit Madigan from serving as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, a position he has held since 1998, and from being involved in any legislation regarding energy or the electric industry.
“I have never made a legislative decision with improper motives,” Madigan said. “We intend to defeat this transparently political lawsuit, which is wrong on both the facts and the law.”
Stuart Chanen, one of the attorneys involved in the RICO civil lawsuit, said the plaintiffs’ lawyers filed the suit to get back money that belongs to ComEd customers and to stop Madigan from passing additional legislation affecting ComEd “because of the bribery scheme of Speaker Madigan to which ComEd has already admitted.”
“Everything else the Speaker sets out in his statement is simply no longer credible in the face of the sworn admissions that ComEd has made, statements that are against its own criminal, financial, and public-relation interests,” Chanen said. “ComEd has no reason whatsoever to make up facts about Speaker Madigan.”
A number of Democrats have called for Madigan to either resign or give up his leadership positions. Madigan has said he still has the support of party members and lawmakers and has no plans to resign.
