Did COVID-19 compromise ComEd grand jury proceedings?

Lawyers for four people indicted in an alleged bribery scheme by Commonwealth Edison to influence powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan said in a court filing Friday theyhave serious concerns that COVID-19may have led to a grand jury that was not “representative of the community” as required by law.

A motion jointly filed by attorneys for the four defendants asked for information and data from the U.S. District Court clerk on how grand juries have been run during the pandemic, which led to a virtual shutdown of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in the spring and continues to disrupt how juries and grand juries have been convened.

Among the information requested in the seven-page motion was demographic information about the makeup of recent federal grand juries and any excuses potential jurors used to get out of service, as well as any written policies the court has used to constitute a jury.

“Defendants require such information to determine whether their constitutional and statutory right to a grandjury drawnfroma fair cross section of the community has been violated,” the motion stated.

The motion was the first challenge filed by the defense since an indictment was handed down on Nov. 18 charging Michael Mc

Clain, a longtime confidant of Madigan’s, with orchestrating an elaborate bribery scheme with ComEd to funnel money and do-nothing jobs toMadigan loyalists in exchange for the speaker’s help with state legislation.

In addition to McClain, the 50-page indictment also charged former ComEd CEOAnne Pramaggiore, 62, lobbyist and former ComEd executive John Hooker, 71, and Jay Doherty, 67, a consultant and former head of the City Club of Chicago.

All four have pleaded not guilty.

Madigan, 78, the longestserving House speaker in U.S. history and chairman of the state Democratic Party, has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Federal grand juries are the mechanism used by prosecutors to bring an indictment against a defendant. Thegrandjury— which consists of 23 members of the public who convene over a period of months or even years — operates in secret, issuing subpoenas for records through federal prosecutors and hearing testimony from witnesses before deciding if probable cause exists to believe a crimewas committed.

The U.S. attorney’s office had indicated in court filings that keeping grand juries seated early on in the pandemic had proven difficult.

Tomake social distancing logistically possible, grand juries began meeting in the courthouse’s large ceremonial courtroom on the 25th floor, with the door windows papered over to preserve secrecy, instead of the usual smaller grand jury room.

According to the motion, the grand jury that handed up the indictment was convened in January 2019 and some jurors were likely added after the pandemic, while others “may have deferred or been excused from jury service for reasons related” toCOVID-19.

The coronavirus has also hit the population differently depending on age, race and location, leading to the possibility that the grand jury in this case may have been “whiter, younger, and more male” than the actual makeup of the district, the motion stated.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber had not set a date to hear the motion as of Friday.

The indictment in the ComEd case alleged that beginning in 2011, the defendants “arranged for various associates” of Madigan — including his political allies and campaign workers — to “obtain jobs, contracts and monetary payments” from ComEd even in instances where they did little or no actualwork.

McClain and the other defendants also conspired to haveComEdhire aMadigan-favored law firm and lawyer, previously identified in public testimony as Victor Reyes of Reyes Kurson, and to accept into ComEd’s summer internship program a certain number of students who lived in Madigan’s 13th Ward, according to the charges.

Pramaggiore and McClain also allegedly took steps to have an individual appointed to ComEd’s board of directors at the request of Madigan and McClain, the indictment stated. Tribune has identified the appointee as Juan Ochoa, the former head of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority of Chicago.

The U.S. attorney’s office has previously said that the investigationwas ongoing.