Out of all the electronics, emails, and other documents seized by the FBI in a raid on the downstate Quincy home of Michael McClain in May 2019, one item stood out.
Inside a tote bag in McClain’s silver Toyota Avalon were handwritten notes scrawled on stationery from a Chicago boutique hotel, listing the names of allies of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan who’d gone on to lucrative lobbying careers.
Among the five pages was a printed email from McClain, one of Madigan’s closest confidants, describing the pages as a “Magic Lobbyist List” and using his favorite euphemism of “Friend” to refer to the speaker. The recipients of the email had been blind copied, hiding their names.
“So since I don’t roam the halls like I use to do I do not have the same ‘on site’ engagement that I use to have,” read the email, which was shown to jurors Monday in the corruption trial of Madigan and McClain. “A Friend of ours and myself have gone through the ‘magic list’ and frankly culled quite a few names…There are now a little less than two dozen on the list.”
McClain went on to ask the recipient of the email for help fish for potential clients.
“If you have a potential client come up to you and seek you as a lobbyist but you cannot for whatever reason please engage him/her and try to get him or her to consider a recommendation from you,” McClain wrote. “Please call me then and I will have a conversation with someone and get back to you asap.”
Federal prosecutors say McClain’s list of lobbyists is powerful evidence that McClain was secretly helping a select group of former Madigan staffers, associates and allies get business — and that the speaker was aware of the effort.
The list including one page with a shorter bunch of names broken into sections headed by a different number of “plus” symbols in an apparent rating system. Among them were former top Madigan political gurus Michael Thomson, Shaw Decremer, Bill Filan and Tom Cullen, along with Will Cousineau, who testified for prosecutors earlier in the trial.
The list also contained names of other longtime Madigan associates whose names have surfaced in the trial, such as top Madigan legal counsel Mike Kasper, lawyer and political consultant Victor Reyes, former legislators John Bradley, Annazette Collins and Toni Berrios, whose father, Joe Berrios, was the Cook County assessor and Democratic chair.
One page of the list also had a circle around the name of Nancy Kimme, the former chief of staff for Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka who became a key Republican lobbyist with the ability to reach out to both sides of the political aisle.
Kimme is expected to testify later in the trial about an effort by McClain to pass legislation transferring a parcel of land in Chinatown to developers who allegedly were being pressured to hire Madigan’s law firm.
Another document found in one of McClain’s tote bags was a handwritten note that appeared to lay out McClain’s recent duties in assisting Madigan, since McClain had ostensibly retired in 2016 but continued to accept special political “assignments” from the speaker.
“Speaker: available 24/7 (calls),” read the note, which was also shown in court. The second page of the note had the header “Special Assignments” followed by names and phrases including: “Members / lobbyists wishing to visit with MJM/Mapes,” a reference to the speaker and Tim Mapes, his then-chief of staff.
Another header read “Diversion/Saving Speaker and Mapes,” an apparent reference to the sexual harassment scandal that had engulfed the speaker’s operation in 2018.
Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise.
Among the allegations: Several Madigan allies got no-work subcontracts from ComEd; the utility reserved internships each year for young people referred from Madigan’s 13th Ward; and a law firm headed by Madigan fundraiser Victor Reyes was awarded a lucrative contract with ComEd, allegedly at Madigan’s request.
Both Madigan and McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy, have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
The trial, which began Oct. 8, is expected to last until mid-January.
Also Monday, a former forensic accountant for the FBI testified that she combed over a slew of documents and found that ComEd made more than $1.3 million in indirect payments to clout-heavy subcontractors from 2011 to 2019.
Prosecutors allege the utility used “pass-through” contractors to hide the fact that they were paying Madigan’s allies to do little or no work. Executives would add money to existing contracts, like that of consultant Jay Doherty, who would then pass the money down to the subcontractors, prosecutors have said.
Doherty, along with McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and ComEd executive and lobbyist John Hooker, was convicted last year in the “ComEd Four” bribery trial.
Among the biggest beneficiaries of the arrangement was Ed Moody, a legendary 13th Ward precinct captain and Madigan loyalist who is expected to testify for prosecutors later in the trial. Over the years he was paid nearly $355,000 through various subcontracts, according to FBI Special Agent Katharine Heide.
Another precinct captain, Ray Nice, got even more, collecting a total of $415,000 from 2012 to 2019, Heide said.
Frank Olivo, former 13th Ward alderman, received $368,000, and former state representative Eddie Acevedo and his consulting firm were paid $120,000, according to Heide’s testimony.
The number of subcontractors grew over time, Heide said.
