Article Summary
- A federal appeals court released its opinion Monday that former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former lobbyist Michael McClain could be retried on charges related to bribing former House Speaker Michael Madigan. Their earlier convictions were overturned in April after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of federal bribery law.
- The appeals court wrote in a 16-page opinion that the convictions were flawed, but rejected arguments from Pramaggiore and McClain’s lawyers that the two should be acquitted outright.
- Whether the case will move forward now rests in the hands of U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, whose office has been under fire after prosecutorial misconduct came to light in the high-profile trial “Broadview Six” protestors.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CHICAGO, Ill. (Capitol News Illinois) — A federal appeals court said Monday that prosecutors are free to retry former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former lobbyist Michael McClain on charges related to a scheme to influence ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The 7th Circuit judges released a 16-page opinion outlining their rationale for overturning Pramaggiore and McClain’s convictions and ordering them released from prison in April.
But the order made it clear that the conviction reversal should not be interpreted as a measure of Pramaggiore and McClain’s incorruptibility, rejecting arguments from their lawyers for an outright acquittal.
“Do not misread our opinion,” the panel of three judges wrote. “We are not suggesting that Pramaggiore and McClain are innocent, only that their convictions were flawed and that they have a right to see their sentences vacated.”
Read: Seventh Circuit Appeals Opinion_25-2349.pdf
A jury found Pramaggiore and McClain guilty in May 2023, along with former ComEd executive John Hooker and longtime Chicago City Hall lobbyist Jay Doherty. As the two marquee defendants of the so-called “ComEd Four,” McClain and Pramaggiore both received two years in prison at their sentencing hearings last summer.
They were convicted on charges of criminal conspiracy, bribery, and falsifying records to conceal payments made to benefit Madigan, and each served around 3 months before their release this spring. Madigan, tried separately, is currently serving a 7 ½ year sentence in a West Virginia prison on related public corruption charges.
Read more: ‘You preferred secrecy and lies’: Madigan confidant gets 2 years for role in ComEd bribery scheme | Former ComEd CEO sentenced to 2 years for bribery scheme targeted at Madigan
The convictions were overturned after a 2024 Supreme Court decision by the 6-3 conservative majority narrowed the scope of federal bribery law to exclude “gratuities,” which the court defined as after-the-fact payments to an elected politician not tied to any official acts.
After the Supreme Court’s decision, those bribery charges were deemed invalid, but the lower court ruled that the conspiracy convictions could stand based on the remaining charges of falsifying records and sidestepping internal accounting controls.
Read more: 7th Circuit orders release, new trial for two ‘ComEd Four’ defendants | ‘ComEd Four’ found guilty on all counts in bribery trial tied to ex-Speaker Madigan
The appeals court disagreed, ruling that it can’t be determined how jurors may have weighed the now-invalid bribery charges as the basis for the conspiracy charge, writing that the bribery charges “infected” the conspiracy convictions.
However, the court rejected arguments to acquit Pramaggiore and McClain, finding that there was “more than sufficient evidence” for jurors to have determined they falsified records.
But what’s next for the defendants is uncertain, as it falls onto the desk of U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros amid calls for his resignation after prosecutorial misconduct came to light during the high-profile trial of the ‘Broadview Six’ protestors.
Read more: ‘Crock of s—’: Transcripts show grand jurors dismissed for disagreeing with government’s case against ‘Broadview Six’ | U.S. attorney acknowledges speech to ‘Broadview 6’ grand jury as calls for his resignation mount
In an emailed statement, Boutros said his office is “weighing our options” on whether to retry Pramaggiore and McClain.
“We appreciate the Seventh Circuit’s careful attention to this matter and respect its well-reasoned and thoughtful opinion,” Boutros said. “We are pleased that the Court agreed that the government presented ‘significant and compelling evidence’ at trial, and that a ‘properly instructed jury could have convicted the defendants on this record.”
(Reporting by Maggie Dougherty, Capitol News Illinois. Hannah Meisel contributed reporting to this story.)
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Comments