Gov. Pritzker: Illinois speaker ‘must resign’ if allegations true
Madigan implicated in ComEd bribery scheme
CHICAGO – Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan “must resign” if allegations of corruption are true against the fellow Democrat long considered the state’s most powerful lawmaker.
Madigan, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, denied wrongdoing through a party spokeswoman, who said he received subpoenas for documents Friday morning.
“He will cooperate and respond to those requests for documents, which he believes will clearly demonstrate that he has done nothing criminal or improper,” spokeswoman Maura Possley said in a statement.
Federal prosecutors said electric utility ComEd has agreed to pay $200 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a long-running bribery scheme that implicates Madigan. They say the company has admitted that from 2011 to 2019 it arranged for jobs and vendor subcontracts “for various associates of a highlevel elected official for the state of Illinois.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office identified the high-level elected official as “Public Official A” in a news release. A deferred prosecution agreement for ComEd filed in federal court states that “Public Official A” is the Illinois House speaker, but Madigan – a Chicago Democrat who is the longest-serving state House speaker in modern American history – is not mentioned by name.
“The speaker has a lot that he needs to answer for, to authorities, to investigators, and most importantly, to the people of Illinois,” Pritzker said during a stop in suburban Chicago. “If these allegations of wrongdoing by the speaker are true, there is no question that he will have betrayed the public trust and he must resign.”
U.S. Attorney John Lausch said at a news conference that the agreement with ComEd “speaks for itself.”
“It also speaks volumes about the nature of the very stubborn public corruption problem we have here in Illinois,” he said.
Lausch wouldn’t comment on the identity of Public Official A, saying his office doesn’t identify people if they have not been charged. But he said the investigation is “vibrant” and will continue, and he asked for people with information to contact the FBI.
In the news release, prosecutors said Public Official A controlled what measures were called for a vote in the Illinois House of Representatives and exerted substantial influence over lawmakers concerning legislation affecting ComEd.” During the time of the scheme, the Illinois Legislature considered legislation that affected the company’s profitability, including regulatory processes used to determine rates the state’s largest electric utility charged customers, they said.
The alleged bribery scheme was orchestrated “to influence and reward the official’s efforts to assist ComEd with respect to legislation concerning ComEd and its business,” prosecutors said. That included arranging jobs and vendor contracts for Madigan allies and workers, including for people from his political operation, who performed little or no work, appointing a person to the company’s board at Madigan’s request and giving internships to students from his Chicago ward.
“The Speaker has never helped someone find a job with the expectation that the person would not be asked to perform work by their employer, nor did he ever expect to provide anything to a prospective employer if it should choose to hire a person he recommended,” Possley said in the statement.