CHICAGO (CN) — The federal corruption trial of ex-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan continued Wednesday with testimony from Fidel Marquez, a former vice president for energy company ComEd.
Marquez is one of the government’s key witnesses in the ComEd “episode” of Madigan’s trial, one of five such episodes spread over the last 14 years from which the former speaker’s 23 conspiracy, bribery, fraud and racketeering charges derive.
Marquez pleaded guilty in September 2020 to a federal conspiracy charge related to his involvement with ComEd’s admitted yearslong scheme to influence Madigan and other Illinois lawmakers.
Prosecutors say Madigan supported ComEd’s legislative agenda — and several key bills benefitting the company — between 2011 and 2019, in exchange for ComEd helping arrange jobs and kickbacks for his political allies. Among those allies were political workers and public officials in Chicago, several of whom were attached to Madigan’s home turf in the city’s 13th Ward.
On the stand Wednesday, Marquez testified to how the company facilitated those perks for Madigan’s people in the Windy City.
The work included efforts by the so-called “ComEd Four” — a quartet of ComEd insiders whom jurors convicted in May 2023 on separate corruption charges related to Madigan’s own indictment.
One of the Four, ex-Democratic state representative-turned ComEd contract lobbyist Mike McClain, is Madigan’s co-defendant in this trial. Prosecutors say he acted as Madigan’s lieutenant and confidant for years.
Prosecutors laid out how ComEd arranged subcontracts for Madigan’s Chicago circle using a flow chart jurors saw Tuesday morning. By 2018, the company had contracts with a law firm and two consulting firms owned by Madigan associates. Those firms had subcontracts of varying length with members of the Chicago circle, including 13th Ward political workers Ed Moody and Ray Nice, former 13th Ward Alderman Frank Olivo, former 23rd Ward Alderman Mike Zalewski and former Democratic state representative Eddie Acevedo.
Marquez focused his testimony on the contract ComEd had with a consulting firm owned by another of the ComEd Four, Jay Doherty. Jurors saw internal ComEd documents stating that between 2017 and 2018, the company paid Doherty $32,500 a month — funds Marquez said was earmarked for the subcontractors.
Despite technically being on the company’s payroll, jurors saw evidence that theses subcontractors did little work for ComEd in Springfield or Chicago. Marquez said as much himself when U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu asked him about former alderman Zalewski.
“Did he ever do anything at all, to your knowledge, for ComEd?” Bhachu asked Marquez.
“No,” Marquez responded.
The jurors even heard it from Doherty’s own mouth on Wednesday afternoon. Marquez began cooperating with the FBI in early 2019 after learning he was implicated in the federal investigation into ComEd’s bribery scheme in the Illinois legislature. He agreed to secretly record video and calls with the ComEd Four, and in a February 2019 meeting with Doherty, he asked the consultant just what his firm’s subcontractors do.
“So as far as I know, and maybe you can tell me different, all these guys do is, they’re a sub under you and you cut them a check. Do they do anything? Or, what do they do? What do you have them doing?” Marquez asks Doherty in the video.
Doherty’s answer corroborated other evidence jurors saw Wednesday.
“To answer the question, not much,” he said.
The conversation was part of a series of meetings Marquez held with ComEd insiders after agreeing to work with the feds, with the story of trying to clear re-upping Doherty’s contract with then-ComEd CEO Joe Dominguez.
In the February meeting with Doherty, the consultant said he took his cue on the subcontractors from John Hooker — an internal ComEd lobbyist and another of the ComEd Four — and from Mike McClain.
But McClain, whom Marquez met with in the Springfield Italian restaurant Saputo’s only few days before, passed the buck to Doherty.
“So it’s a favor and it’s Doherty’s contract. So Doherty’s the one that has to prove that if the IRS ever comes in and says, ‘Who are these guys and what do they do?'” McClain told Marquez in the video, partially obscured by pizza.
McClain also advised Marquez against putting anything in writing.
In another February 2019 meeting Marquez recorded with McClain and Hooker, Marquez floated the possibility that Dominguez, a former federal prosecutor, would reject the arrangement ComEd reached with Doherty and Madigan’s Chicago associates.
Hooker warned that Madigan — whom Marquez referred to as “our friend” in the video — may not be so supportive of the energy company’s work in Springfield if that was the case.
“You’re not going to do it? You’re not going to do something for me, I don’t have to do anything for you,” Hooker imagined the then-speaker might think.
As it turned out, the worry was unfounded. Marquez and McClain spoke with Dominguez in early March 2019, and when Marquez breached the issue, Dominguez was amenable to maintaining the arrangement with Doherty and the Chicago subcontractors. He said lobbyists often seem like they’re doing nothing until “the magic moment,” and agreed with Marquez that in that moment they may be worth “a hundred times” what they’re being paid.
“We got to do that business, you know?” Jurors heard Dominguez say.
Marquez’ testimony is expected to continue through most of Thursday. His testimony in this trial echoes that he gave during the ComEd Four trial last year.