* Tribune…

Jurors in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan on Thursday heard a wiretapped phone call in which the speaker’s longtime confidant laid out his rather old-school worldview when it came to political hiring recommendations.

It was May 23, 2018, and Michael McClain was talking to Madigan’s son, Andrew, about his frustration that representatives of a gas utility were complaining they were being pressured to hire someone recommended by the speaker as part of the state’s entrenched pay-to-play system.

“That’s what happens when you’re in this game,” McClain said on the call, which was being secretly recorded by the FBI. “And you never know, maybe someday you can ask for a favor, so. I mean, that’s how this is, you can’t be offended with that. Oh, so you got pressure too? Are you kidding me?”

Later in the same call, McClain continued his diatribe, saying, “I just love these people.”

* Sun-Times…

McClain called Madigan’s son that evening to tell him about the chat with Marquez. McClain said “that’s how the sys[tem], it is, you can’t be offended with that. Oh, so you got pressure too, are you kidding me? Yeah, we got pressure. Okay, okay.”

Madigan’s son said, “that’s funny” and told McClain he appreciated the call. “It’s not easy working with people,” he added. […]

“Yeah, I mean, it’d be easier if everybody would just obey right?” McClain said.

Moments after he played that call in court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu began the task of walking jurors through a mountain of emails that showed McClain’s relentless pressure on ComEd to hire people, allegedly at Michael Madigan’s behest.

* Capitol News Illinois…

But on Thursday, jurors got a glimpse of Marquez’s overflowing inbox as prosecutors took him through nearly 80 email exhibits related to job and internship requests for everyday people, mostly from Madigan’s 13th Ward power base on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

McClain could be relentless in his requests, sometimes refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer, even when Marquez told him that an applicant was rejected by a certain ComEd department because he or she was unqualified.

The jury saw three months’ worth of emails about one applicant who, Marquez told McClain, didn’t have the minimum qualifications for even an entry-level analyst job . Still, Marquez secured the candidate an interview for ComEd’s IT support team in the winter of 2014 after McClain told him Madigan “asks about him every week.”

But it didn’t go well.

In addition to lacking technical skills, the applicant didn’t even have the sort of “soft skills that might compensate,” ComEd’s vice president for IT told Marquez in an email.

* WTTW…

“Attached is a request for a person to work in our legal department this year,” McClain wrote in an April 16, 2013 email to Marquez, “He will not learn very much and he will not be able to contribute much, if anything, but that is still the ask.”

That “ask,” McClain explained in the email, had come from “our friend” — a reference to Madigan. Other applicants were also suggested by 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, according to Marquez.

“I have to say that generally Fidel tells me that the company is very happy with the quality and work ethic of the individuals you sponsor,” McClain wrote to Quinn in a Feb. 23 2016 email. “Kudos to the 13th Ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

According to Marquez, ComEd eventually expanded the number of spots it reserved for 13th Ward applicants from six up to 10.

* Center Square…

In another email, McClain asked Marquez to accept an internship candidate with a 1.1 grade-point average, even though Marquez wrote, “I don’t think our standards are that low.”

When McClain read that the student’s GPA was 1.1, he responded in an email, “Holy Mackerel! Even mine was higher than that.”

Marquez also testified about job candidates that McClain, at Madigan’s request, had asked ComEd to hire. Marquez said he agreed to take one candidate into his organization even though the candidate “bombed” an initial interview.

Marquez wore a recording device to a meeting with McClain and recently named ComEd CEO Joe Dominguez on March 5, 2019. During the recorded conversation, McClain explained how ComEd would hire people chosen by Madigan in the days when the utility company still used workers to read meters.