* Courthouse News Service…
Juan Ochoa, a former board member of Illinois’ largest electric utility company ComEd, took the stand Tuesday in the ongoing federal corruption trial of ex-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.
Ochoa, current CEO of facilities services company Miramar Group, is a businessman who has been active in Chicago politics for decades. He told jurors Tuesday he had done “election work” for ex-Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and he helped found the Latino Leadership Council PAC in Chicago in 2018.
Blagojevich also appointed Ochoa CEO of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which operates Chicago’s McCormick Place and Navy Pier, in January 2007, though Ochoa left the authority in May 2010.
Ochoa only stayed on the board of ComEd for a year, from April 2019 to April 2020, but how he got his seat — and the $78,000 pay that came with it — informs several of the government’s conspiracy and bribery charges against Madigan. Jurors saw evidence Tuesday that then-House Speaker Madigan pushed ComEd to take on Ochoa as a favor to other influential Latino politicians in the Chicago area, including former Democratic Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez and current Democratic Illinois Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
* Tribune…
The episode of Ochoa’s appointment to ComEd’s board is central to the one of the biggest allegations in the case against Madigan and McClain, a longtime ComEd contract lobbyist and self-described “agent” of the speaker. In exchange, prosecutors allege, Madigan used his position to help with the utility’s legislative agenda.
It’s also a lesson in the strange political machinery of Chicago, where changing demographics in Madigan’s Southwest Side ward led to an unusual alliance with Gutierrez and Garcia, two influential Latino politicians who had never endorsed the speaker until the 2016 election.
In fact, Ochoa had been on the outs with Madigan ever since he had personally fired a McPier employee in 2007 who’d previously served as a Madigan legislative staffer in the General Assembly.
After the employee’s termination, Ochoa hit a brick wall when it came time to negotiate for House approval of legislation to refinance McPier’s high-interest bonds in early 2008. Eventually, Ochoa resigned because he felt the debt refinancing would never pass if he stayed on, according to Ochoa’s statements to investigators
* Sun-Times…
The process took more than a year. It prompted pushback from Latino leaders such as Martin Sandoval and Iris Martinez, who were Democratic state senators at the time. But jurors also heard how Madigan told McClain he wanted then-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore to keep pushing. They also heard McClain pass along the instruction and Pramaggiore agree to it.
“I will keep pressing,” she said of the pending Ochoa appointment, which didn’t become official until April 2019.
Along the way, Pramaggiore told McClain that, “you take good care of me … and so does our friend, and I will do the best that I can … to take care of you.” Jurors have heard that McClain and others often used the phrase “our friend” to refer to Madigan.[…]
Ochoa testified that he prompted the meeting with Gutierrez and Madigan. Todd Pugh, one of Madigan’s defense attorneys, pressed Ochoa on the point Tuesday. He asked Ochoa, “Mike Madigan didn’t reach out to you or Congressman Gutierrez to say, ‘Hey, thanks for helping me out with the election’? That’s not the way it worked, correct?”
Ochoa agreed that wasn’t how it happened.
* Capitol News Illinois…
They spoke once more a couple months later once Ochoa had finally been appointed to the board, asking McClain to pass along his thanks to Madigan. McClain told Ochoa that there was a “bigger team” behind him all along, including Pramaggiore, whom McClain encouraged Ochoa to thank separately.
Late in the afternoon on May 14, 2019 – two weeks after Ochoa’s first ComEd board meeting – Ochoa did just that, emailing Pramaggiore and asking if he could take her to breakfast or lunch that summer.
Unbeknownst to Ochoa, a few hours before he sent his message, FBI agents conducted a coordinated series of searches at the homes of Madigan allies, including McClain. Agents also showed up to Pramaggiore’s door with a subpoena to seize her cell phone, according to her testimony in last year’s “ComEd Four” trial.
Did Ochoa ever end up sharing a meal with Pramaggiore that summer, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur asked as she wrapped up her direct examination on Tuesday.
“I did not,” Ochoa replied.
* More…
* Tribune | Madigan jury expected to hear from precinct captain: Jurors in the Michael Madigan corruption trial on Wednesday are expected to hear testimony from legendary 13th Ward precinct captain Edward Moody, the onetime Cook County Recorder of Deeds who prosecutors say raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from ComEd through do-nothing consulting contract. Moody, who along with his twin brother, Fred, was one of Madigan’s most trusted election-time door-knockers, testified at the related “ComEd Four” bribery trial last year that the speaker made it clear that the money would dry up if Moody stopped working on campaigns.
- Lincoln Lad - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 9:59 am:
With Moody in the chair, today should be a devastating day for the defense.
- low level - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 10:18 am:
==With Moody in the chair, today should be a devastating day for the defense.==
Yes. He is like a smart bomb for the prosecution. It has to be a very difficult day for the Brothers. They were more than precinct captains. MJM was like a father figure to them.
- Barrister's Lectern - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 10:59 am:
=== With Moody in the chair, today should be a devastating day for the defense. ===
Let’s see how he fares on cross-examination. He has a tendency to embellish things and I expect the defense to call him out on it.
- levivotedforjudy - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 11:00 am:
When I was in college I took up to grad level poli-sci classes and I remember one of my profs telling us that what we are studying and what we will read in the Trib and Sun-Times on how Chicago - style government operates are completely different worlds. How true.
- low level - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 11:11 am:
==how Chicago - style government operates are completely different worlds. How true.==
Sure, but just don’t forget the GOP machines in DuPage, Springfield and other locations during that era. There was no difference between them and the 13th Ward in terms of how they operated.
- Give Me A Break - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 11:46 am:
“Sure, but just don’t forget the GOP machines in DuPage, Springfield and other locations during that era. There was no difference between them and the 13th Ward in terms of how they operated.”
Spot on. In the 80s if you wanted a state job in Sangamon County the first step was having your GOP committeeman putting his initials on the top of the application. That was code for the agency to know the applicant was blessed by a certain GOP county chairman.
And for you kiddies out there, at that time there were nothing but paper applications that were submitted via snail mail.
- Um, no - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 12:05 pm:
=Sure, but just don’t forget the GOP machines in DuPage, Springfield and other locations during that era. There was no difference between them and the 13th Ward in terms of how they operated.=
The tried and true “sure, but” defense.
All who engage in these types of shenanigans, regardless of party affiliation are not worthy of our respect or the office that they hold.
There are many honest and decent public office holders. It is a matter of character. The low character grifters on trial here act nothing like the honest/decent folks. Worse than the behavior is the reality that they do not know it is wrong.
- Just Me 2 - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 12:20 pm:
===There was no difference between them and the 13th Ward in terms of how they operated.===
And Lee Daniels and Mike Tristano all turned out okay, eh?
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 12:36 pm:
It seems to me that not many people are interested in the Madigan trial (Cap Fax folks excluded). He’s out of office, he’s old, and my guess is most people don’t think the trial will change things very much.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 12:39 pm:
===Unbeknownst to Ochoa, a few hours before he sent his message, FBI agents conducted a coordinated series of searches at the homes of Madigan allies, including McClain. Agents also showed up to Pramaggiore’s door with a subpoena to seize her cell phone, according to her testimony in last year’s “ComEd Four” trial.===
Imagine Pramaggiore’s reaction to seeing that e-mail in her inbox right after being served by the feds. When they make the movie, that scene is going to be pivotal to the entire script. That’s when it all came crashing down on her.
Good stuff.
- low level - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 12:59 pm:
==And Lee Daniels and Mike Tristano all turned out okay, eh==
Was there a Lee Daniels trial? Or Irv Smith? I must have missed those.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 1:08 pm:
===Was there a Lee Daniels trial?===
No, but Tristano got a year and a day.
- Original Rambler - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 1:32 pm:
Wonder if Fred and Ed will be spending Thanksgiving together. /s (kinda)
- Barrister's Lectern - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 1:35 pm:
=== Wonder if Fred and Ed will be spending Thanksgiving together. /s (kinda) ===
Of course they will be. Fred probably encouraged Ed to testify to save Ed’s own rear end.
- low level - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 3:39 pm:
== Fred probably encouraged Ed to testify to save Ed’s own rear end==
Of course Ed testified. They had him dead to rights. He preferred not to go to prison. Anyone would have done anything differently? The feds would have indicted MJM and McClain anyway.
Ed did the right thing. Same goes for Cullen and anyone else who makes that decision.
- anon2 - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 7:45 pm:
The Moody brothers were incredible. They could’ve been successful salesmen.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 20, 24 @ 9:21 pm:
===They could’ve been successful salesmen.===
They were. That’s why they got into this mess.