(The Center Square) – Defense attorneys in the “ComEd 4” federal corruption trial intimated to jurors on Thursday that there was no way former House Speaker Michael Madigan would ever conspire with the defendants in a pay-for-play scheme to benefit the utility because he simply loved being Mike Madigan too much.
“In all your years of experience, did you ever think for one minute that Mike Madigan would risk his speakership and his power to get a few more people some jobs at ComEd,” attorney Patrick Cotter quizzed former ComEd executive and current defendant John Hooker during early-morning questioning.
Representing fellow defendant and longtime Madigan confidante Mike McClain, an exasperated Cotter later added “some summer interns?”
Along with former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former City Club of Chicago head Jay Doherty, Hooker and McClain now face charges of being at the center of a long-running scheme to bribe Madigan with jobs, contracts and payments in exchange for legislation in Springfield deemed to be to the utility’s benefit.
All four of the defendants have pleaded not guilty, with attorneys for each of them insisting that the tactics they used all fall under the umbrella of legal lobbying. Madigan and McClain face a separate racketeering indictment, with that trial expected to kick off sometime early next year.
With Wednesday marking his second day on the stand, Hooker told jurors in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Harry Leninweber that he never sought to use corruption as a means of influencing Madigan, at one point explaining away a secret recording played by prosecutors where he was directly told by McClain that “we had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us” as just “me and McClain joshing around.”
Later, under more intense questioning from Cotter, he added that any such scheme is “a bad idea.”
Hooker also insisted he never spoke with Madigan about any of the subcontracts prosecutors contend were vital to keeping the operation running. His comments were made despite statements seemingly to the contrary that were captured in some of the wiretaps the government has played for jurors over the past six weeks.
While acknowledging that once he got to Springfield it was McClain who helped show him the way, Hooker added over time he won everyone over, Democrats and Republicans alike, by playing it straight.
“My job was to meet with everybody,” he added. “When you see me talking to ‘X’ or ‘Y,’ that was me talking about ComEd’s business.”
