Michael McClain
CHICAGO – Taking occasional notes – a habit hard-wired after more than 25 years as Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chief of staff – Tim Mapes sat and listened to opening statements in his perjury and obstruction of justice trial in a federal courtroom on Wednesday. Mapes allegedly lied to a grand jury in 2021…
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CHICAGO – In the summer of 2018, Tim Mapes’ name had only recently faded from unflattering headlines after he was forced to resign from three top jobs he held under powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Mapes, who’d served as Madigan’s chief of staff for more than two decades, had been accused of sexual harassment…
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CHICAGO — Michael Madigan’s former chief of staff reached out to a defense attorney for the then-powerful Illinois House speaker after he was approached by FBI agents in early 2019, then he called a longtime Madigan confidant and said he was “reporting in,” prosecutors say. While the feds do not argue those actions by Timothy…
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Bliefnick removed from QU Sports Hall of Fame; is McClain's removal from QU Legal Hall of Fame next?
QUINCY — Tim Bliefnick graduated from Quincy University in 2005 and played football for the Hawks as a student-athlete. He was good enough to be named an All-American and be selected for the school’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. The following paragraph is from a QU news release announcing the school’s induction class for…
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CHICAGO — Exelon, the parent company for Commonwealth Edison, has been paying the legal fees for two now-convicted former Edison executives who were part of a conspiracy to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, WBEZ has learned. The move has created an unusual dynamic. On one hand, the company’s subsidiary, ComEd, is cooperating with federal investigators…
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CHICAGO — State officials suspended the legislative pension of former lobbyist Michael McClain after his conviction May 2 alongside the ‘ComEd Four’ on bribery charges, but the suspension may only be temporary. McClain, a former Illinois House representative and ComEd lobbyist with longtime ties to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, was found guilty on nine counts of conspiring and falsifying…
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Ray Long of the Chicago Tribune covered the “ComEd 4” trial and also, literally, wrote the book on Michael Madigan, former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. He and MRN’s Bob Gough talk about the outcome and what it means for future lobbying efforts in the Statehouse. McClain’s sentencing in federal court is scheduled…
Read Full Article Local and state political leaders are reacting to Tuesday’s guilty verdict of retired lobbyist Mike McClain of Quincy on nine charges of federal bribery. Statement from the office of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker: “Since taking office, Gov. Pritzker has advanced the cause of ethics reform in key areas, especially in bringing more transparency to the…
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“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” — St. Augustine Mike McClain’s friends and supporters always saw him as their champion. When roads and bridges needed to be built, McClain got the call. Need a Civic Center? McClain is on it. The ultimate fixer. The insider’s…
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CHICAGO – A federal jury on Tuesday convicted three ex-lobbyists and the former CEO of electric utility Commonwealth Edison for their involvement in an alleged bribery scheme aimed at longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and Mike McClain of Quincy – the utility’s longtime contract lobbyist and close confidant of…
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CHICAGO – Attorneys for both the defendants and the government made the same appeal to a federal jury Tuesday before it was left to deliberate the fate of four former Commonwealth Edison officials accused of bribery. “Use your common sense,” U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said while wrapping up the government’s final rebuttal in the trial’s…
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CHICAGO – Before jury deliberations begin on the fate of four ex-Commonwealth Edison officials after a six-week bribery trial, an attorney for one of the defendants got emotional Monday afternoon when imparting the weight of the jury’s task. “Be the shield that you were meant to be,” Patrick Cotter told jurors after gathering himself. “The…
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A defense attorney for a longtime friend of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan called on a federal jury Monday to “be the shield” between a private citizenand a “very powerful government committed, dedicated and on a mission to get Mike Madigan.” But federal prosecutors asked that same jury to reject the idea that a “stunning” stream…
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CHICAGO – After nearly six weeks, a federal jury has heard almost all the evidence in the bribery trial of three ex-lobbyists for electric utility Commonwealth Edison and its former CEO who are accused of bribing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Prosecutors allege the four arranged for Madigan allies to get jobs and contracts…
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CHICAGO – When the former CEO of Commonwealth Edison was interviewed by federal prosecutors and agents in September 2019, she denied knowing the substance of the case the government was building against her and her colleagues. Specifically, Anne Pramaggiore said that until the feds’ investigation into ComEd became public four months prior, she was unaware…
Read Full Article CHICAGO – In May 2018, Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore called the utility’s longtime top contract lobbyist, Mike McClain, with some news: she was about to be promoted to CEO of Exelon Utilities. In that role, she would oversee ComEd and five other utilities under the parent company’s umbrella. “Never would’ve happened without you and…
Read Full Article CHICAGO — Near the end of a long day of animated testimony Monday, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore’s voice grew quiet. The jury in the “ComEd Four” bribery trial had just heard for the second time a wiretapped recording on which she told a close associate of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan, “You take good care of me,…
Read Full Article CHICAGO — Federal jurors have spent five weeks listening to the voice of former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, caught in a cache of secret FBI recordings in which prosecutors say she conspired with her colleagues to bribe then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. But late Thursday, the polished former energy executive and theater major finally got the chance to…
Read Full Article Anne Pramaggiore to take rare – and risky – step of defending herself to jury CHICAGO – Federal prosecutors on Wednesday rested their case against three ex-lobbyists and the former CEO of electric utility Commonwealth Edison in a trial where the four stand accused of orchestrating a yearslong bribery scheme to influence Illinois’ most powerful…
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A legendary precinct captain for former House Speaker Michael Madigan told jurors in the “ComEd Four” bribery trial Tuesday that the speaker got him a $45,000-a-year contract with one of the utility’s top lobbyists but made it clear the deal would disappear if he stopped working on campaigns. Edward Moody, for years one of Madigan’s…
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CHICAGO – Former Commonwealth Edison executive Fidel Marquez had been a government informant for less than a month when he had a meeting with longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in mid-February 2019. The meeting was routine; Marquez, another executive and ComEd’s relatively new CEO met with Madigan at the beginning of the General Assembly’s…
Read Full Article QUINCY — ComEd and Exelon faced another round of serious negotiations over legislation in Springfield early in 2019, and former ComEd lobbyist Michael McClain had a problem. The longtime confidant ofthen-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan had already retired from his lobbying job, so Madigan asked who would serve as ComEd’s “lead” on the bill. McClain couldn’t…
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Frankie, Bobby and Ashley return to their Crown Peach roots and talk politics while Bobby doesn’t let the Cardinals lack of pitching on Opening Day distract him.
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In intense courtroom moment, government’s star witness accused of saving his own skin CHICAGO – About an hour before sunrise on a mid-January morning in 2019, two FBI agents arrived at the home of Fidel Marquez’s mother, where the longtime executive of Commonwealth Edison had been staying. The agents played a series of recordings of…
Read Full Article CHICAGO — Michael McClain laughed inside Saputo’s restaurant in Springfield as he shared with then-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez his story about his 2016 retirement, and how he handed his list of duties over to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Madigan and McClain were longtime friends. McClain has described himself as an “agent” of Madigan. And after McClain…
Read Full Article January 20, 2025
OUT AND ABOUT: ADAMS COUNTY'S 200TH BIRTHDAY WITH CELEBRATIONS
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