Mary Dixon: Federal prosecutors are expected to finish presenting their evidence this week in the ComEd bribery trial. They are asking jurors to find four defendants guilty in a scheme to bribe Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Dave McKinney is covering the trial for WBEZ, he spoke with Clare Lane on what we know so far about this momentous corruption case.

Clare Lane: So who are the defendants and what are they on trial for?

Dave McKinney: Well, Clare, we're talking about four different people here. First one Anne Pramaggiore, she's the former CEO of ComEd. She was really once one of the most powerful female business leaders in Chicago. The next person, Mike McClain he's a former ComEd lobbyist, one of the most powerful Springfield lobbyist too and the reason for that was he was a confidant of house speaker Michael Madigan. Third person Jon Hooker, a former in house lobbyist at ComEd and later a consultant and then the fourth person, a guy named Jay Doherty who also lobbied for ComEd was president of the City Club of Chicago, which was a public affairs forum. Now, the government says that they bribed Madigan in an effort to help ComEd you know basically win passage of legislation over about a 10 year period that yielded at least, you know, a billion eight for the company. So it was very lucrative.

Clare Lane: It seems like Madigan is the one who's in the middle of all of this. How does the bribery piece of this work?

Dave McKinney: We've heard, you know, numerous tapes of his voice on, you know, these recordings, but he's not on trial, his trial comes up next year in April. And as far as a bribery piece of this, it's not what you, I guess normally picture with bribery, it's not cash in an envelope being handed to somebody. This was instead Madigan and McClain allegedly pressuring ComEd to hire his political friends for basically no work jobs. And so, you know, we're seeing that, and the government is making the case that this this hiring procedure was the bribe.

Clare Lane: Madigan's request that comment to hire certain people has been such a big focus of this trial. Can you give us an example of what that looked like?

Dave McKinney: I have a lot of examples that I could point to Clare and, and let me just point to one of them that came up in trial last week. That involved a case where Madigan was trying to do a favor for a friend of his in congress at the time, former Congressman Luiz Gutierrez. Gutierrez had this person that he wanted to elevate to a spot on the board at ComEd. There was an opening there and Madigan stepped in and said, I'll help you here and, and the reason for that Gutierrez endorsed him in the previous election. So it was sort of pay back. And the person that they were talking about was the former McPier chief Juan Ochoa. It was for a gig that paid nearly $80,000 for just four meetings. We've got a secret recording of McClain and Pramaggiore that I want to play here, that shows how Madigan used McClain to exert pressure on ComEd.

Michael McClain: I talked to him about Juan Ochoa. And he would appreciate it if you would keep pressing. 

Anne Pramaggiore: Okay. Got it, I will keep pressing. Alright.

Dave McKinney: And true to her word Pramaggiore helped get Ochoa on the board. He got the appointment and Madigan one out and he got, he got the guy he wanted,

Clare Lane: What's illegal about that. Isn't that what politicians do?

Dave McKinney: Um, you know, I've covered Springfield for a long time and I knew Madigan was powerful. But this trial and these secret recordings are showing, you know, how McClain and Madigan were using a state regulated power company really in a way as if they almost owned it, you know, dictating who it should hire. I mean, that's, that's something that we think, you know, a business handles on its own. Now, as for your question about whether isn't this just all politics? Well, I mean, we're going to hear a lot of that, I think from the defense which starts presenting its case this week. You know what we've heard so far from the defense lawyers is that they have argued this is how politics works everywhere. Springfield, Washington, wherever, political favors aren't illegal. And that what we saw, what the prosecutors had been focused on here, is just a legitimate form of lobbying.

Clare Lane: Dave McKinney is WBEZ's Illinois politics reporter. Thanks Dave.

Dave McKinney: Thanks Clare.

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