Lobbyist testifies ‘loyalty’ to Madigan led him to make payments to ousted staffer

December 14, 2024 | By Hannah Meisel, Capitol News Illinois

The Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, where prosecutors are set to rest their case in former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s corruption trial next week. | Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams

CHICAGO – After nearly a dozen years working for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, Tom Cullen went out on his own in 1999, building up a lengthy roster of diverse – and often high-paying – clients that kept him busy.

Even so, Cullen continued to volunteer with the Democratic Party of Illinois, overseeing campaigns and participating in strategy meetings. For years after he’d left his dual roles as director of the issues development unit within the speaker’s office and as political director for the state party, Cullen worked with his successors on critical races in closely contested House districts.

In a federal courtroom where his former boss is standing trial on nearly two dozen corruption charges, Cullen on Wednesday told the jury that he continued that volunteer work “because I’m a political junkie.”

“Plus I’m very loyal,” Cullen said. “I was loyal to the speaker, loyal to his operation and loyal to Democrats. I just wanted to be part of it.”

Cullen, who is no stranger to the witness stand after having testified at a pair of related trials last summer and a few months ago, went on to describe himself as loyal three more times on Wednesday.

Prosecutors called Cullen as a witness as they’re rounding out the last episode in the case against the former speaker, which involves an alleged bribe between AT&T Illinois and Madigan. Cullen facilitated the alleged bribe, he testified Thursday.

But the feds are also using Cullen’s testimony to remind the jurors of evidence from earlier in the case involving the speaker’s loyal inner circle.

It was Cullen’s loyalty that led him to participate in meetings in the spring and summer of 2018 to formulate a strategy to save Madigan’s political future after his organization was hit with allegations of sexual harassment at the height of the #MeToo movement.

And it was that same loyalty that drove Cullen to immediately agree to a plan to funnel payments to a fired Madigan aide whose alleged harassment sparked scrutiny of the speaker’s leadership, endangering him politically.

“Whatever you want, 100% on any of that stuff … It’s not even a question,” Cullen said in a wiretapped phone call with retired Statehouse lobbyist and longtime Madigan confidant Mike McClain in August 2018. “You know, that’s as loyal as I am on this stuff. It’s just, it’s ridiculous. You just tell me where, when, how, all that s— and it’ll be done.”

McClain is Madigan’s co-defendant in the current trial, accused of bribery, racketeering and wire fraud charges. The feds allege McClain helped steer the “criminal enterprise” that both enhanced the speaker’s power and enriched Madigan and those in his inner circle.

Cullen was at least the fourth call that McClain made on Aug. 28, 2018, asking lobbyists close to Madigan whether they’d be willing to pay about $1,000 per month to Kevin Quinn, a longtime political staffer in the speaker’s organization.

In February of that year, then-28-year-old political consultant Alaina Hampton publicly accused Quinn, who was married and more than a dozen years older than her, of making repeated romantic advances by text message even after she’d asked him to stop. Though prosecutors were only allowed to describe Quinn’s firing as a result of his “misconduct,” they introduced his episode amid other #MeToo-related evidence.

Hampton’s accusations, including that she quit her job with Madigan’s 13th Ward Democratic Organization due to its leadership’s handling of her complaint, rocked both Madigan’s office and Illinois politics as a whole.

Within the next several months, Madigan would cut ties with or distance himself from three others in his organization accused of bullying and sexual harassment – including his longtime chief of staff Tim Mapes.

In Mapes’ perjury and attempted obstruction of justice trial last summer, Cullen testified that he was “devastated” over Mapes’ firing in June 2018, and that he’d thrown a dinner for Mapes the following month out of concern for his friend. A few other former Madigan staffers also attended the dinner, he said.

In Mapes’ trial and earlier in Madigan’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence that those around the speaker were talking among themselves about how to help Mapes after his firing. But no evidence has suggested Madigan was involved in those discussions.

But that wasn’t the case when it came to Kevin Quinn, at least according to McClain. In the call played for the jury Wednesday, McClain told Cullen that the speaker eventually intended to help Quinn find a job – though it wouldn’t be until Madigan secured another term as House speaker in January 2019, and until the newly seated Democratic caucus approved his all-important House rules.

McClain told Cullen that information was “between you and me only,” despite having also made the same claim to former Democratic state lawmaker-turned-lobbyist John Bradley and longtime Madigan political director-turned-lobbyist Will Cousineau that morning.

And, as it turned out, the FBI was also listening.

Under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker, Cullen said he agreed to McClain’s request for the same reason he’d kept doing unpaid political work for years, and the same reason he’d invited Mapes to dinner: loyalty.

“Because I was loyal, because I was loyal to the operation, I was loyal to Mike McClain,” Cullen testified. “Because I knew that Kevin was going through some personal situations and i knew Kevin at the time had small children and needed some income coming in.”

“At the time, did you have a need to hire Kevin Quinn for anything?” Streicker asked.

“Not really, no,” Cullen replied.

Even so, Cullen sent the first of six $1,000 checks to Quinn in October 2018 after he’d turned in his first assignment: a list of probable new members to the General Assembly after the next month’s election. Cullen then gave Quinn his next assignment: writing a list of “won and lost for the General Assembly.”

Reading his six-year-old email on the witness stand Wednesday, Cullen told Streicker that his assignment to Quinn “was just busywork” that he could’ve easily done himself.

Cullen used the same descriptor in telling the jury about the “assignment” AT&T Illinois gave to former state Rep. Eddie Acevedo in 2017. The telecom giant had been a longtime client of Cullen’s when AT&T’s internal lobbyists asked him in the spring of 2017 if he’d be willing to serve as an intermediary for payments to Acevedo.

Before Cullen took the witness stand Tuesday, the jury saw a February 2017 email from McClain to an internal AT&T lobbyist asking if the company could pull together “even a small contract for Eddie Acevedo?” Prosecutors also introduced a series of internal emails between the company’s legislative team and AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza discussing how Acevedo could be retained as a consultant instead of a lobbyist in order to avoid public disclosure of the hire.

At the time, Acevedo was newly retired from the General Assembly after a 20-year career in the House. In January 2017, electric utility Commonwealth Edison hired him as a consultant also at McClain’s request, the jury heard earlier in trial.

Former Democratic state Rep. Eddie Acevedo and his attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti exit the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Wednesday after being ordered to testify in ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s corruption trial.| Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams

Prosecutors allege Madigan accepted bribes from both ComEd and AT&T in the form of jobs and contracts for his political allies. In exchange, the feds claim the companies received Madigan’s help with major legislation in Springfield.

McClain and three other former ComEd lobbyists and executives were convicted of bribery last year, while La Schiazza’s trial ended in a hung jury in September. On Thursday morning, the judge in La Schiazza’s case denied his motion for acquittal, meaning he could be retried in the new year.

The jury already heard former ComEd executive-turned-FBI mole Fidel Marquez testify that Acevedo was not taken seriously as a legislator and had a reputation for being caustic and drinking too much in Springfield.

Cullen testified to the same during La Schiazza’s September trial but softened his wording on Wednesday. However, after Streicker encouraged him to tell the jury the actual words Acevedo used in an April 2017 call to express that he was insulted by AT&T’s $2,500 per-month offer, Cullen obliged.

“He said f— ATT, they can kiss my ass,” Cullen recalled.

But not long after, Acevedo changed his tune and accepted the company’s offer. Cullen cut Acevedo his first of nine checks in June 2017. Though Acevedo had been assigned to a report on the political dynamics within the Latino caucuses in both the General Assembly and Chicago City Council, Cullen said he never expected Acevedo to do so.

Acevedo is expected to take the witness stand on Monday after Cullen finishes his testimony. Despite objections from defense attorneys and Acevedo’s own attorney due to the former lawmaker’s dementia diagnosis, U.S. District Judge John Blakey on Wednesday ordered Acevedo’s testimony after interviewing him the previous day.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys eschewed Blakey’s suggestion that a video deposition be taken that could be edited before being shown to the jury.

The AT&T-related charges are the final phase in the government’s case, which has so far taken eight weeks. Prosecutors indicated they could rest early next week, while defense attorneys say their case could go beyond the week of Christmas.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.