(The Center Square) – A former precinct captain for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan testified that he expected to get paid for services he did not render, as long as he continued doing campaign work for Madigan.
In testimony Wednesday at the corruption trial of Madigan and codefendant Michael McClain, Ed Moody described how he became a paid subcontractor for ComEd, despite not doing work for the utility company.
Moody said he spoke with Madigan in late 2011 or early 2012 about possibly doing consulting work for additional income. Moody said the speaker did not say yes or no at the time.
Moody said that he and his brother became upset and scheduled another meeting at Madigan’s 13th Ward office. At the second meeting, Madigan told him, “You’re going to make your $45,000,” and subsequently told him, “You’re going to be working for McClain.”
Moody added that Madigan also told him he would lose the consulting contract if he stopped doing political work for Madigan. Moody then explained how he understood Madigan’s words.
“Do the political work, keep the contract. Don’t do the political work, don’t keep the contract,” Moody testified.
Moody said Madigan told him that this was how he rewarded his good soldiers.
Moody said he met with McClain and described him as “very impressive, a high-powered lobbyist.”
During the meeting, Moody said McClain told him this was “one hell of a plum,” and “you owe the speaker big.” Moody said McClain also told him to keep “knocking doors” and doing political work.
Moody said he did make calls to various lawmakers’ district offices and provide monthly reports for McClain. He sent invoices from his company, Edward Moody Consulting, to McClain’s company for $4,500 per month and received checks from McClain’s company for $4,500 per month until sometime in 2014.
Moody said he received flyers from ComEd and passed them out for several months as he was campaigning for the Worth Township highway commissioner in 2013.
Moody said he sent an invoice to McClain’s firm for $15,000 for four months of handing out flyers as he was doing door-to-door campaign work for himself and a slate of Democratic Party candidates in Worth Township.
A federal 1099 form for tax year 2012 showed $40,500 paid to Moody from McClain’s firm. A 1099 form for tax year 2013 showed $42,000 paid to Moody from McClain’s firm.
Moody said that, aside from making monthly phone calls and handing out the ComEd flyers, he did not recall doing any other work for McClain during those years. Moody said that he did continue doing political work for Madigan.
Moody said he understood he was receiving payments from McClain because of the political work he was doing for Madigan.
Moody testified that McClain told him in 2014 that he would be receiving checks from Jay Doherty instead of from McClain. At his first meeting with Doherty, Moody said that he received an envelope with invoices and filled out some paperwork. Moody said that Doherty told him to keep knocking on doors and to be on call.
Prosecutors then displayed an invoice for $4,500 and communications between Moody and Doherty’s office. Moody said that Doherty did not tell him about rendering any services to ComEd.
Moody said he received monthly checks for $4,500 from Doherty’s office. He said he never received any assignments or did any work for ComEd while receiving the checks from Doherty.
“Nothing ever changed,” Moody said.
Doherty said the payments from Doherty ended in 2016, when he became a Cook County commissioner. Doherty said Madigan called him and told him to move forward with the appointment as commissioner and that he would find him something else, which Moody understood to be another contract.
Some time later, McClain told Moody that he would work under lobbyist Shaw Decremer. Moody described Decremer as a former “high-ranking staffer” for Madigan.
Prosecutor Diane MacArthur displayed an invoice for $4,500 from Moody to Shaw Decremer for services rendered, although Moody said he did not perform services for Decremer. MacArthur also introduced a $4,500 check as evidence.
Moody said he received $4,500 checks each month while continuing to do political work for Madigan.
“Nothing ever changed,” Moody repeated.
In 2018, Moody said that lobbyist and former Illinois state Rep. John Bradley called him to say, “Welcome aboard,” and advised him that he would be sending a contract.
MacArthur displayed the contract from Bradley’s law firm, which provided that Moody would be “working on the ComEd account” and would be paid $4,500 per month.
Moody said he saw Madigan while campaigning in the speaker’s neighborhood and expressed concern that he had not heard from Bradley or from ComEd about potential work for the utility company.
Moody said that Madigan told him, “You have nothing to worry about … You didn’t sign a contract with ComEd. You signed a contract with John Bradley,” Moody testified.
When asked if he did any work for ComEd while getting paid by John Bradley, Moody answered, “No.”
Earlier Wednesday, Moody said that he received monthly checks over a period of years from McClain, Doherty, Decremer and Bradley. Moody said he did “little” work for McClain and no work for Doherty.
When asked if he did work for Decremer or Bradley, Moody answered, “None.”
McClain, Doherty, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker were convicted of conspiracy, bribery and falsifying records in the ComEd Four trial last year.
Moody served as Cook County commissioner from 2016 to 2018 and as Cook County recorder of deeds from 2018 to 2020.
Earlier Wednesday, Moody described the campaign work he did for Madigan’s organization, starting in 1992. Moody said he would put in as many hours as he could, including nights and weekends.
Since the FBI searched his house in 2019, Moody said he has not done any more campaign work for Madigan.
Before Moody took the stand Wednesday and after former ComEd board member Juan Ochoa finished testifying Tuesday, government attorney Julia Schwartz played recordings and introduced communications related to Ochoa’s appointment.
In a wiretapped conversation on Feb. 19, 2019, McClain telephoned Ochoa.
“I wanted to call you in confidence. The Speaker knows I’m calling you,” McClain said.
McClain advised Ochoa that his appointment to the ComEd board had been approved, and that ComEd CEO Joe Dominguez would be calling him.
“Anne Pramaggiore called me and I called Mike, but I asked Mike not to call you, because they want Joe Dominguez to call you and say, ‘We’d like you to be on the board,’ formally,” McClain told Ochoa.
Telephone conversation between Michael McClain and Juan Ochoa DATE: February 19, 2019
In a wiretapped phone call dated Feb. 16, 2019, McClain asked former state government official and Springfield alderman Frank McNeil if he wanted to see Madigan about contracts.
“I think everybody expected that with J.B. getting elected, there’d be a lot more activities,” McClain said on the recording, referring to current Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“Yes, I thought so. That’s why I was trying to get to the speaker to see if there was some more opportunities out there,” McNeil responded.
Telephone conversation between Michael McClain and Frank McNeil DATE: February 16, 2019
Madigan and McClain are charged with 23 counts of bribery, racketeering and official misconduct.
ComEd admitted in 2020 that it sought to influence Madigan by placing his associates into jobs requiring little or no work. ComEd agreed to pay a fine of $200 million and and cooperate with the federal investigation in exchange for an agreement that prosecutors drop a bribery charge against the utility.
United States of America v. Madigan et al is scheduled to resume Thursday morning at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
