* Tribune…

Jurors in Michael Madigan’s corruption trial on Monday heard a key wiretapped phone call in which the speaker’s longtime confidant told him about a plan to kick payments to a loyal ward aide who was ousted after being accused of sexual harassment.

On the August 2018 call, Michael McClain tells Madigan he’d “put four or five people together that are willing to contribute to, uh, help with monthly things for the next six months like I mentioned to ya for Kevin Quinn,” the brother of Madigan’s handpicked 13th Ward alderman, Marty Quinn.

McClain then asks Madigan if he wanted to call the alderman first to let him know, or just stay out of it.

“Yeah — I think I oughta stay out of it,” Madigan could be heard saying.

* Sun-Times…

Marty Quinn had a similar response when he got his own phone call from McClain about the plan to help his brother.

“I’d rather stay in the dark,” Marty Quinn told McClain.

Neither one protested or told McClain to shut the plan down.

Prosecutors say that episode — and the tale of the Madigan allies in the “fox hole” together — is evidence of a criminal enterprise Madigan led for nearly a decade, with McClain acting as his agent.

* Courthouse News…

On one August 2018 call with ex-Illinois Democratic state Representative John Bradley, McClain floated the idea of Quinn investigating who public officials’ “sugar daddies” were. McClain suggested the work would be part of a consulting gig, in case the IRS asked any questions.

“I think you can hire him as a consultant. Because I think at the end of the day, you’re gonna write it off,” McClain told Bradley on the call.

“I think you can hire him as a consultant. Because I think at the end of the day, you’re gonna write it off,” McClain told Bradley on the call.

McClain made the same suggestion on another 2018 call to former Madigan political staffer Will Cousineau, who was on the stand from last Tuesday afternoon through this Monday morning. Jurors heard that call last week. […]

Prosecutors showed the jury Monday that Quinn did receive checks from McClain, Bradley, Cousineau and two other Madigan associates — either directly or via the associates’ consulting firms — in late 2018. None of the checks jurors saw was worth less than $1,000.

* ABC Chicago…

It was along that same vein that the government’s next witness, ComEd executive Keisha Parker, took the stand. She testified to helping McClain, who was then an external lobbyist for the utility, to set up campaign fundraisers on behalf of Madigan and the Democratic Party of Illinois.

She also said she was part of setting up a contract for Ed Moody. Moody is one of the five men, all Madigan loyalists, identified by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as being hired by ComEd through various subcontractors for little to no-work jobs allegedly worth over $1.3 million.

“I recall there not being enough funds in the government affairs budget,” Parker said. “We had to work to secure additional funding, and we got information we would be covering from the CEO’s budget.”

Former Democratic Party of Illinois campaign worker Alaina Hampton was also expected to take the witness stand Monday, but will likely be pushed to Tuesday.

* Capitol News Illinois…

Also on Monday, the jury heard more wiretapped recordings from the tense hours and days after Madigan fired his longtime chief of staff Tim Mapes after his own sexual harassment allegations were made public in early June 2018.

McClain stepped away from a wake to take a call from Madigan the afternoon of Mapes’ allegations and subsequent firing, telling the speaker that the “only tears” he’d shed that day were over the whole situation. McClain then pivoted to asking permission to contact a crisis management public relations firm on Madigan’s behalf.

A few days later, Madigan updated McClain on the progress he’d made speaking to women on the Democratic State Central Committee, and told him that his new chief of staff, who was a woman, had called every female member of the House Democratic Caucus to ask “what we can do better or different.”

In late June, McClain asked Madigan what he thought of Democratic strategist Anita Dunn, who the speaker’s inner circle was vetting to handle PR in the wake of the harassment allegations that had hit Madigan World in recent months.

“Oh I think she’s fine,” Madigan said. “I think she’s fine, yeah.”

* More…

* WGN | Prosecutors focus on sexual harassment, no-show jobs in ongoing Madigan corruption trial: FBI agents took the stand to testify about the 2019 raid of former Madigan staffer Kevin Quinn’s home in 2019. Quinn was fired over sexual harassment allegations from fellow Madigan staffer Alaina Hampton. “We were looking for proof of residence, financial records, and documents,” said Supervising Special Agent Prince Prempeh about the search of Quinn’s Beverly home. According to prosecutors, the search warrant also uncovered a plot to send money to Quinn. Madigan’s fixer, Michael McClain, allegedly orchestrated a series of little-to-no-work jobs to funnel money to the former associate.

* Sun-Times | Judge in Madigan corruption trial urges jurors to vote, calling the U.S. a ‘bright moment in human history’: Eighteen jurors headed home from Chicago’s latest public corruption trial Monday for what would likely be their final opportunity to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election — but before they left, they got a reminder that “freedom is not a spectator sport.” “If anyone knows that, that’s you guys,” U.S. District Judge John Blakey told them.