Michael McClain finally faces sentencing

Of all the players swirling in the bribery scandal involving former House Speaker Michael Madigan, from precinct captains and political directors to legislators and lobbyists, one man held the ultimate catbird seat: Michael Francis McClain.

As a longtime lobbyist for utility giant Commonwealth Edison who doubled as Madigan’s closest confidant, McClain toiled for years in relative obscurity, known mostly by Springfield insiders and political reporters as the former legislator from downstate Quincy with the thick prescription glasses who always seemed to be hanging around Madigan’s office suite in the Capitol.

But it was through his close relationship with Illinois’ most powerful and reticent politician, prosecutors say, that McClain was able to leverage knowledge of the speaker’s thinking to induce ComEd executives to lavish money on Madigan’s cronies and scramble to meet his myriad other demands.

Now, more than two years after McClain’s conviction in the historic “ComEd Four” bribery case, McClain is scheduled to learn his fate today at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where he faces sentencing in what has become one of the biggest bribery scandals in state history.

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Jason Meisner.