The feds say a man who once had an “unbreakable” bond with former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan should be sentenced to nearly six years in prison, partly for serving as Madigan’s “agent, messenger” and “henchman” in a lengthy conspiracy involving ComEd.
Prosecutors said Thursday that Michael McClain’s “tight connection” with the former speaker led to McClain “making demand after demand of ComEd to fulfill Madigan’s directives,” as a jury concluded in May 2023.
“McClain’s plan was illegal to its core,” they wrote.
But McClain’s attorneys say he should get probation when he’s sentenced July 24. They said the 77-year-old former lobbyist once operated in an Illinois Capitol where favors were “not perceived by the vast majority of legislators and lobbyists … as being in any sense illegal.”
They also said the “most important consideration” for U.S. District Judge Manish Shah could be the adequacy of medical treatment McClain might receive behind bars. They cited the possibility that he could “die alone in prison, separated from his family and loved ones.”
“Mr. McClain has not held political office in over 30 years,” his lawyers told the judge. “He is neither responsible for, nor is it just to punish him to any degree for generations of the way politics has been conducted by other people in this state.”
Six years ago, McClain bragged about how “you’ve never seen my name in a newspaper article.” But in the years since, he’s become a central character in multiple trials at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
He faced two of his own. One ended with McClain’s conviction for the ComEd conspiracy, for which he now faces sentencing. Jurors in that case found McClain guilty for his role in a scheme to pay $1.3 million to five Madigan allies to curry favor with Madigan.
Convicted along with McClain in that case were former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty. All four face sentencing before Shah in the coming weeks.
McClain then went to trial a second time, alongside Madigan. But jurors in that case returned no verdict when it came to McClain.
Still, panels in two other trials heard plenty about him. The jury that convicted former Madigan chief of staff Tim Mapes of perjury and attempted obstruction of justice in 2023 listened to McClain’s voice repeatedly as prosecutors used his wiretapped calls to prosecute Mapes.
Then, the jury that failed in 2024 to reach a verdict regarding former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza heard that McClain was seen as Madigan’s emissary amid an alleged bribery scheme for which no one has been convicted, so far.
La Schiazza faces trial again in January.
Much has been made of the friendship between Madigan and McClain, which seems to have been key to the case prosecutors built against the once-powerful former speaker. Former Ald. Danny Solis asked McClain about it in a secretly recorded conversation in 2017.
Solis wore a wire for the FBI to avoid a conviction for his own alleged wrongdoing. McClain once served in the Legislature with Madigan, taking office around 1972.
“The speaker was No. 1,” McClain told Solis. “I was No. 2. And, um, we became real good friends. And then after I left office, then I went back to lobbying, and we continued that friendship.”
McClain also told Solis about a lesser-known side of Madigan, warning him about watching Notre Dame games with the famously reserved politician.
“He’s yelling and screaming all the time,” McClain said. “You don’t want to sit in the living room with him and watch a Notre Dame game. He gets pretty passionate about it.”
Madigan testified at trial that his relationship with McClain had survived, “until recently.” And during closing arguments in their trial earlier this year, McClain attorney Patrick Cotter said McClain was once Madigan’s “good friend.”
“We know, now, he’s not,” Cotter told the jury. “And that’s — I guess that’s a casualty of this case. But it was real.”
However, U.S. District Judge John Blakey took Madigan to task last month while sentencing him to 7 ½ years in prison. The judge accused Madigan of lying on the witness stand, including about his relationship with McClain.
“McClain was one of Madigan’s most trusted operatives,” Blakey said, “not just one lobbyist of many as Madigan falsely portrayed in his testimony on the witness stand.”