Federal prosecutors say a former top lobbyist for ComEd should be sentenced to more than 4 ½ years in prison for his role in a conspiracy designed to illegally sway former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan — and for lying on the witness stand.
The recommendation for John Hooker, 76, comes more than two years after he and three others were convicted for their roles in the lengthy scheme, for which Madigan faces his own 7 ½-year prison sentence.
Now Hooker and three others face sentencing in the weeks to come. Hooker is set to go first, on July 14. Monday’s recommendation is the first indication of how the feds want U.S. District Judge Manish Shah to rule in the case.
“Members of the business community in Illinois need to receive the simple, undiluted, and unequivocal message that if they engage in fraud or corruption, they will be sent to prison for a long period of time,” prosecutors wrote.
Hooker’s defense attorneys asked Shah to give Hooker probation instead, calling his conviction “the antithesis to an otherwise praiseworthy life filled with repeated and continuous good deeds, selflessness, and ethical conduct.”
Convicted at trial along with Hooker in May 2023 were longtime Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty. Madigan was convicted in a separate trial in February.
Jurors in both cases heard that five Madigan allies were paid $1.3 million by ComEd over eight years so that Madigan would look more favorably at the utility’s legislation in Springfield.
Sentencing hearings for Hooker and his co-defendants were long delayed by machinations at the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court’s ruling in a separate corruption case eventually prompted Shah to toss a series of bribery counts in the ComEd case. That left the four defendants each convicted of conspiracy and four counts of falsifying books and records.
In a 52-page court memo Monday, prosecutors insisted that Hooker lied to the jury when he took the witness stand at trial. Madigan also testified at trial, and U.S. District Judge John Blakey agreed with prosecutors that the former speaker lied.
Prosecutors now say Hooker lied when he denied any involvement in the scheme aimed at Madigan, when he said he arranged for Madigan’s allies to be paid through Doherty’s consulting firm so he could avoid additional responsibilities, and when he said he cared about the “value” Madigan’s allies brought to ComEd.
The feds also say Hooker lied by claiming McClain was “just joshing around” on a secret FBI recording when he said, “We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us.” Hooker replied, “That’s as simple as it is.”
The memo from Hooker’s attorneys claimed that the former lobbyist is “deeply saddened by the negative impact that this case has had on the lobbying industry,” and that he gained nothing from the crime.
But prosecutors said Hooker’s “own conduct” caused that negative impact on the lobbying industry, and they say that about 60% of Hooker’s compensation at ComEd until March 2012 “was based on ComEd’s and Exelon’s performance.”
Finally, prosecutors pointed to Madigan’s 7 ½ year prison sentence in making their recommendation for Hooker, as well as the 2 ½ year prison sentence handed last year to Madigan’s former chief of staff, Tim Mapes.
Mapes went to prison for perjury and attempted obstruction of justice.
The feds say that, while Hooker was a willing participant in the eight-year ComEd conspiracy, “he committed these crimes at Madigan’s behest and is thus less culpable than Madigan.”