* Capitol News Illinois…
Two key figures in the federal corruption case against ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan were ordered released from prison Tuesday just hours after their lawyers argued for a new trial in front of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Longtime Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain and former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore — half of the group that become known as the “ComEd Four” after their 2020 indictment on charges they bribed Madigan — will also receive a new trial. Their codefendants did not appeal their convictions but have already been released to halfway houses after serving monthslong sentences in federal prison.
The three-judge panel issued a short order barely four hours after it finished hearing consolidated appeals arguments in the cases. In it, they wrote that “Both Pramaggiore and McClain are entitled to release” on bond while awaiting a new trial. It’s unclear when the judges will publish their longer opinion formally ordering a new trial.
“The United States must make arrangements to release Pramaggiore and McClain from federal custody forthwith,” the order said. […]
A jury found the pair guilty in May 2023, along with former ComEd executive John Hooker and longtime Chicago City Hall lobbyist Jay Doherty. As the two marquee defendants, McClain and Pramaggiore both received two years in prison at their sentencing hearings last summer.
Those sentences would likely have been much longer, but U.S. District Judge Manish Shah last March tossed the four bribery charges against them and granted a partial retrial based on a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowed the scope of federal bribery law. However, prosecutors opted instead to proceed straight to sentencing and moved to dismiss the bribery counts after each sentencing hearing.
Shah, who took over the case after the death of the trial judge in 2024, based his sentences and fines of the ComEd Four on the remaining charges, including an overarching conspiracy count.
Also still at play were their convictions on four counts alleging the defendants falsified ComEd’s business records to hide payments to a handful of Madigan allies hired as do-nothing subcontractors through ComEd lobbyists close to the speaker. The payments, which began with one political ally of the speaker in 2011, added up to $1.3 million to five men over a period of eight years.
* Tribune…
The rapid-fire decision came after consolidated arguments for McClain and Pramaggiore before the 7th Circuit, Tuesday. The three-judge panel had tough questions for a government lawyer about how the conspiracy conviction could stand after the high court said “gratuities” given to elected officials with no direct tie to official actions are not illegal. […]
Paul Clement, the lead attorney for Pramaggiore, argued that there was no possible way for the court to know that the jury didn’t convict the defendants based on the government’s bribery theories — and therefore a new trial was inevitable. […]
“Here’s the problem,” Judge Thomas Kirsch II said to Assistant U.S. Attorney Irene Hickey Sullivan just moments after she stepped to the podium. “When you charge the case and try the case as a bribery case, what’s to say the jury just didn’t consider the illegal bribery object of the conspiracy and stop right there?”
Sullivan argued the evidence in the case overwhelmingly showed the defendants’ motive to falsify records was to hide the nature of illicit subcontractor payments to political friends of Madigan who did little or no actual work for ComEd.
* The Sun-Times…
Assistant U.S. Attorney Irene Sullivan assured the panel there was sufficient evidence of false records. But Kolar eventually asked whether it would be appropriate to release Pramaggiore and McClain if a new trial is ordered.
Pramaggiore attorney Paul Clement told the panel, “if you’re convinced that there needs to be a new trial, then you should be convinced that my client should not be in prison right now.”
* More from the Sun-Times…
Pramaggiore spokesman Mark Herr and McClain lawyer Joel Bertocchi said they were “pleased” by the news. It followed years of predictions by defense attorneys that a do-over would be necessary, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024 limited the reach of a key bribery law used a year earlier to convict Pramaggiore and Madigan ally McClain. Both have been serving two-year prison sentences.
“It has never made sense that Ms. Pramaggiore has served a single day in prison, much less the three months she has served — for ‘crimes’ the Supreme Court said did not exist,” Herr said.
* CBS Chicago…
CBS News Chicago Legal Analyst Irv Miller said the same-day decision from the appellate court to grant Pramaggiore and McClain a new trial is extremely rare, and could have implications for Madigan’s appeal of his own conviction.
“I think it’s a very good decision for Mike Madigan. He couldn’t have hoped for a better day than what occurred in the 7th Circuit today. Although he was not a party to the action today, the reasoning applies also in his case. It’s not exactly the same factual or legal situation, but it’s enough where the three judges that heard the case last week, that haven’t decided the case yet, may influence them to make a ruling that could favor the former speaker,” Miller said. […]
Miller said it will be up to federal prosecutors to decide whether or not to follow through with a second trial for Pramaggiore and McClain. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago declined to comment.
* The Sun-Times Jon Seidel…
* More…
* WTTW | Pair Convicted in ‘ComEd Four’ Conspiracy Case To Be Released From Prison as Court Set To Order New Trial: Pramaggiore previously filed a motion for bond, which the Seventh Circuit rejected last November before she began serving her prison sentence. As part of his argument in court Tuesday morning, Pramaggiore’s attorney Paul Clement told the three-judge panel that if they are “convinced that there needs to be a new trial here, then you should be convinced that my client should not be in prison.” Clement offered to file a renewed bond motion Tuesday but was told by the court that would not be necessary. The court’s bail decision came hours later.
* Bloomberg | Former ComEd CEO and lobbyist granted new trials in Madigan bribery case: The Tribune notes it’s unclear whether the U.S. attorney’s office will pursue a retrial on the charges against Pramaggiore and McClain, given the change in how the courts define federal bribery following a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision in a separate case. That ruling, Snyder v. U.S., found that gratuities given to an elected official after the fact can’t be considered bribes. The trial court in the ComEd Four case threw out the bribery convictions following that ruling but kept in place convictions on conspiracy charges and violations of books and records regulations.
- *ducks* - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 12:58 pm:
In an alternative world, MJM would have declared victory after the Rauner standoff/JB win, and would have become less of a trophy fish for Bhachu, who was allowed to reverse engineer a corrupt set of facts into a perverse bribery case that left a lot of collateral damage.
What a waste.
- Perrid - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 1:23 pm:
It’s a travesty, the corruption that SCOTUS has decided to make legal
- Dan Johnson - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 1:27 pm:
This is awesome news.
In a lot of ways convicting a CEO under a fiduciary legal obligation to maximize shareholder value in a regulated industry (on the one hand) and following the advice of her lawyers and lobbyists on how to engage with elected officials to improve laws for her company (on the other hand) is the most unfair of all.
But none of this activity from any of these should have ever been considered criminal.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 1:38 pm:
=This is awesome news.=
Enjoy paying your electric bill. You are subsidising this corruption.
- Dan Johnson - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 2:03 pm:
Madigan was the block on legislation that was perceived to be for higher ComEd rates. The House was always tougher on the company and more protective of consumers. That’s another reason the whole thing was daffy.
The corruption was (as I recall) attempting to diversify their board and professional services, hiring half a dozen ‘lobbyists’ who didn’t lobby and hiring a lot of neighborhood people as electricians. That doesn’t impact my electrical bill. No one’s perfect and everyone makes mistakes but this was enormous prosecutorial overreach IMHO.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 2:16 pm:
=In a lot of ways convicting a CEO under a fiduciary legal obligation to maximize shareholder value…=
Can you tell me where I can find this codified in the law?
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 2:21 pm:
===Can you tell me where I can find this codified in the law? ===
It’s not, hence his point.
- Anyone Remember - Wednesday, Apr 15, 26 @ 2:23 pm:
As much as one blames McConnell vs. US (2016), it goes back to McNally vs. US (1987). Congress passed a law overturning McNally, and SCOTUS almost completely gutted it in Skilling vs. US (2010) - yes, the Enron Skilling. SCOTUS has a thing for Perry Mason moments.