Michael McClain was sentenced Thursday for his role in a plot to illegally influence former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on behalf of ComEd.
The right-hand man to former powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was sentenced to two years in prison for helping run a scheme to benefit Madigan and get favorable legislation for ComEd.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah sentenced Michael McClain in a Chicago courtroom Thursday, saying McClain’s longtime partnership with Madigan was a “criminal alliance.”
“You preferred secrecy and lies,” Shah said. “You preferred Mr. Madigan. You chose his way, and the consequences of that choice are yours to bear.”
McClain’s attorney, Patrick Cotter, painted his client as a “good man” with a “good heart” and a “very good soul,” who was dedicated to his family and friends.
“Mike McClain is not a symbol. He’s not a caricature. He’s not a stereotype. He’s a person,” Cotter said. “He is much more than a handful of quotes from emails or tapes or even some of the testimony at trial.”
And Cotter maintained that McClain always believed he was on the right side of the law, saying McClain never intended to bribe Madigan.
“Mike has not admitted his guilt. That’s true. That is absolutely true,” Cotter told the judge. “Mike McClain cannot say what the government wants to hear — because he doesn’t believe it is true.”
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur said McClain put “Madigan’s demands above all else — including the law.”
“Michael McClain’s efforts on behalf of Michael Madigan allowed Madigan to use ComEd like a benefit-fulfillment warehouse, with Michael McClain pulling no-show jobs and other benefits off the shelf, boxing them up and delivering them straight to the speaker,” MacArthur argued during Thursday’s hearing.
There may be no other figure, short of Madigan, more central to the feds’ lengthy investigation of corruption in the last decade than McClain. At least four juries have heard about his crucial role as Madigan’s messenger and emissary.
The feds say the bond between the two men was “unbreakable.” It dates back to the 1970s, when they served together in the Illinois Legislature. But while Madigan remained and amassed great power as House speaker, McClain left office and moved on to lobbying.
And while Madigan is quiet and reserved, McClain comes across in emails and wiretapped phone calls as chatty and boastful, at times profane — and definitely having a flair for the dramatic.
“I am at the bridge with my musket standing with and for the Madigan family,” McClain wrote in a 2016 letter announcing his retirement to Madigan. “I will never leave your side.”
“I know the drill and so do you,” he wrote in an email that same year to the CEO of ComEd. “Our Friend will call me and then I will call you. Is this a drill we must go through?”
In 2018 he also complained to Madigan’s son about people who work for regulated utilities but were “offended if people ask for favors.”
Still, the 77-year-old’s lawyers have argued that McClain operated in an Illinois Capitol where favors were “not perceived by the vast majority of legislators and lobbyists … as being in any sense illegal.” And they’ve argued his health should be a key consideration for the judge.
McClain has faced trial twice since 2023. The first ended with McClain’s conviction for the ComEd conspiracy, for which he faced sentencing Thursday.
The jury found McClain guilty for his role in a scheme to have ComEd pay $1.3 million to five Madigan allies so that Madigan would look more favorably at the utility’s legislative agenda. The money was paid through intermediaries, and the recipients did little work.
Convicted along with McClain were former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty.
The judge sentenced Pramaggiore to two years in prison earlier this week. He gave Hooker 18 months. Doherty faces sentencing Aug. 5, and prosecutors want a 15-month sentence.
McClain’s second trial began last October. That time his co-defendant was Madigan himself. The jury in that case wound up finding Madigan guilty of 10 counts — and he’s since been sentenced to 7½ years in prison — but it failed to reach a verdict regarding McClain.
McClain also turned out to be a central figure in the trials of ex-Madigan chief of staff Tim Mapes and ex-AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza, though he wasn’t on trial himself. Mapes is now serving a 2½-year prison sentence for perjury and attempted obstruction of justice. La Schiazza’s trial ended with a hung jury.
Prosecutors sought three years in prison for McClain, reducing their request from the nearly six years they initially recommended, partly for serving as Madigan’s “agent, messenger” and “henchman” in the lengthy ComEd conspiracy. They said the reduction was based on the sentences given out to McClain’s co-conspirators, and new info about McClain’s medical situation.
“McClain created a way for Madigan loyalists to receive substantial monthly payments for virtually no work, and at the same time, for ComEd to secure favorable legislation through Madigan in the Illinois House,” prosecutors wrote in a court memo this month.
“McClain’s plan was illegal to its core.”
But they said McClain’s crimes weren’t limited to the arrangement with Madigan’s allies. Prosecutors argued he was “unrelenting” in trying to secure jobs and contracts for others tied to Madigan. That included demands for internships and an effort to land a contract for the Reyes Kurson law firm, where political operative Victor Reyes is partner.
“Whether with interns, full-time hires, or Reyes Kurson, McClain threatened repercussions from Madigan if ComEd did not comply,” prosecutors wrote.