Federal authorities recorded phone calls of one of House Speaker Michael Madigan’s closest confidants as part of the burgeoning investigation into ComEd’s lobbying practices, two sources with knowledge of the probe told the Chicago Tribune.
Recordings of phone conversations involving Michael McClain, who lobbied for ComEd and parent company Exelon before retiring in 2016, are part of the expansive probe that has rocked the Springfield political establishment over the past several months, the sources said.
One of the sources said the recordings were made as a result of an FBI wiretap on McClain’s cellphone.
The Tribune first reported that McClain’s home in downstate Quincy was raided by federal agents in mid-May at about the same time they searched homes of at least two other Madigan allies.
The revelation that federal authorities also have recordings of McClain’s phone calls comes as Madigan, the state’s Democratic Party chairman and the nation’s longest-tenured speaker, presides over a fall legislative session in which he already has forced one of his House Democrats to resign over fresh federal bribery charges.
It is unknown if the FBI listened in on any calls between McClain and Madigan, who is famously cautious about what he says in public and over the phone.
But McClain, 71, whose friendship with Madigan dates to when they both served in the House in the 1970s, is widely viewed as one of the few people in Springfield who would have candid conversations about legislative and political strategies with the speaker. Before he retired, McClain often could be found camped out in front of the speaker’s third-floor Capitol office.
At the height of his power at the Capitol, McClain played an outsize role in the lobbying efforts of ComEd and Exelon, which won such major victories as a massive smart-grid overhaul in 2011, and a plan to save two nuclear power plants and the jobs that went with them.
McClain could not be reached Tuesday for comment, while a spokesman for Madigan had no immediate comment. Madigan has previously denied any wrongdoing, telling reporters in Springfield two weeks ago, “I’m not a target of anything.”
ComEd spokeswoman Jean Medina restated Tuesday that the company is cooperating fully with federal investigators but declined to comment further.
Wiretaps are treated by the courts as an investigative method of last resort and require proof not only that a specific crime was being committed but also that the target was using a particular phone to do so. They must be signed off on by a deputy attorney general assigned to the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington before going before the chief federal judge for final approval.
Once agents are up and listening in on a phone, they are required to provide meticulous details to the chief judge every 10 days that they are indeed gathering evidence of criminal activity to keep the recording ongoing.
Word that the FBI tapped McClain’s phone follows Tribune reports that former Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore, who worked closely with McClain, is a focus of the federal investigation.
Also under scrutiny, according to sources, are longtime ComEd lobbyists Fidel Marquez and John Hooker, who retired from ComEd but stayed on to work on company issues through a private lobbying firm that includes Michael Kasper, Madigan’s legal point man on politics. Hooker has since left the firm, records show.
Pramaggiore, 61, once hailed as one of the top female executives in the country, abruptly retired from Exelon last month. She also stepped down as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Under Pramaggiore’s leadership, ComEd employed an army of lobbyists and consultants, and sprinkled millions of dollars in campaign contributions to legislators. ComEd and Exelon consistently ranked among the top corporate donors in Illinois.
The criminal probe has zeroed in on payments through the company’s vast network of consultants to some individuals who seemed to have done little actual work, a source familiar with the probe has said. The payments were aimed at currying favor with certain lawmakers while circumventing lobbying disclosure rules, the source added.
Among the payments, authorities suspect, were thousands of dollars in checks from current and former ComEd lobbyists written to Kevin Quinn, an ousted Madigan political operative, according to the source. The Tribune first reported the checks were under scrutiny in July.
Along with the raid on McClain’s home in mid-May, authorities searched the home of Quinn as well as former Ald. Mike Zalewski, 23rd,, who represented a neighboring ward to Madigan’s 13th Ward stronghold. The FBI was seeking records of interactions among Madigan, McClain and Zalewski related to attempts to get ComEd lobbying work for Zalewski after he retired in 2018, a law enforcement source has said.
In addition, Madigan’s name popped up on a search warrant executed by the FBI in May at the City Club of Chicago seeking records from the organization’s president, Jay Doherty. He has been paid more than $3 million in recent years as a ComEd lobbyist and business consultant, according to federal regulatory records.
ComEd and Exelon have also acknowledged getting two federal grand jury subpoenas in recent months seeking records pertaining to its lobbying efforts. One of the subpoenas received by the company in September asked specifically about the company’s “communications” with state Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat whose legislative territory overlaps with the speaker’s House district.
Sandoval’s Capitol office was raided Sept. 24. Among the lengthy list of items that authorities searched for were those related to ComEd and Exelon, including four unnamed utility officials and specific information about “rate increases,” according to a copy of the warrant provided in an open records request.
rlong@chicagotribune.com
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
