* Click here to follow along in real time. Tribune…

A ComEd vice president testified Wednesday in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan that the utility giant was in severe financial straits leading up to its all-out effort to gain support in Springfield for two major pieces of legislation that brought the company from the brink of bankruptcy.

Their financial condition was “dire” before they managed to get key bills passed in 2011 and 2016, Scott Vogt, currently ComEd’s vice president of strategy and energy policy, told jurors. And Madigan was crucial to getting those bills through the House, both in committees and for a full vote, he said.

“He controlled to a large degree what bills were going to make it to the floor, make it to committee,” Vogt said. […]

Prosecutors had expected to play the first of nearly 200 wiretapped conversations Wednesday as well as put former Rep. Lou Lang, of Skokie, on the stand. Lang, once a ranking Democrat on Madigan’s leadership team, spent most of the day Wednesday waiting down the hall from the courtroom.

Capitol News Illinois…

Just as they did in last year’s “ComEd Four” trial, defense attorneys are likely to lean heavily on the fact that the 2011 law, also known as “Smart Grid,” had already been heavily negotiated by Madigan’s office during the General Assembly’s spring legislative session that year. It initially passed in May 2011, three months before ComEd inked the first no-work contract with former Chicago Ald. Frank Olivo, a Madigan ally who for years represented the speaker’s Southwest Side power base in the 13th Ward.

But then-Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed the legislation, necessitating a veto override vote during lawmakers’ fall session that year […]

In 2016, ComEd and its parent company Exelon got another massive piece of legislation through the General Assembly. The Future Energy Jobs Act, which included big ratepayer subsidies to bail out two of Exelon’s nuclear power plants, also included measures that would incorporate things that customers wanted — namely energy efficiency and renewable energy — into ComEd’s business model. […]

But just like Smart Grid, passing FEJA was no easy task. Negotiations, which were led by attorneys in Madigan’s office and included a wide range of stakeholders from organized labor to environmental groups, stretched from early 2015 down to the wire on the last day of lawmakers’ fall veto session in December 2016. Under cross-examination by Madigan attorney Dan Collins, Vogt said he remembered very clearly that there were seven amendments put on the bill in the hours before it passed.

* Tribune…

But on cross-examination, Madigan attorney Dan Collins peppered Vogt with questions about the bill’s widespread benefits, including for the jurors hearing the case. The benefits included job creation and statewide infrastructure investment, Vogt testified.

McClain attorney Patrick Cotter also pressed Vogt on whether McClain ever suggested a secret deal with Madigan was afoot.

“At any point in the almost 10-year period you spent with Mike [McClain], did he ever say or do anything that led you to believe he had the ability to get Mike Madigan to take official action on behalf of ComEd?” Cotter asked.

Vogt said he did not.

* Sun-Times federal courts reporter Jon Seidel is in the courtroom this morning…

* More…

* ABC Chicago | Former state rep., ComEd VP testify in former IL Speaker Mike Madigan trial: Lang has testified in both the ComEd case and the trial of Madigan’s former chief of staff last summer. Both testimonies delved into how Madigan sent Mike McClain to urge Lang to retire from the General Assembly after the speaker’s office was warned of a woman who had threatened to go public with sexual harassment allegations if Lang did not step down. Madigan’s voice will likely be heard for the first time during his testimony, in an undercover phone call in which he is heard telling McClain to ask Lang to resign, sooner rather than later.

* WGN | ComEd exec testifies in Day 2 of Madigan corruption trial: Expected to take the stand Thursday is former State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) who resigned after accusations of sexual harassment emerged in 2018. The longtime representative from Illinois’ 16th District was allegedly pressured to resign by McLain even though Lang believed the accusations against him were false.

* Center Square | Witness testimony continues in corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker: Former State Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, returned to the stand for additional cross-examination Wednesday morning after beginning his testimony on Tuesday. Drury and Madigan defense attorney Todd Pugh had several combative exchanges over a variety of issues. U.S. government prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu said the prosecution planned to call utility company executive Scott Vogt next, followed by former State Rep, Lou Lang, D-Skokie. Lang was on Madigan’s leadership team before stepping down in 2019 amid harassment allegations.