Ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison for scheme to bribe ex-Speaker Michael Madigan

Chicago Tribune

14-07-2025

Former Commonwealth Edison lobbyist John Hooker was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for his role in an elaborate scheme to funnel $1.3 million to associates of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for the powerful Democrat's help with the utility's legislative agenda in Springfield.
In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah told Hooker it was 'imperative to wipe away the notion' that his actions were merely lobbying a public official.
'It is important for the punishment to reflect this was corruption of consequential public policy, far-reaching legislation and legislative functions,' Shah said.
He also told Hooker that he could have stopped the scheme — or at least decided not to go along with it.
'It takes courage to speak up, to say no in the face of power like Mr. Madigan's,' Shah said. 'It's easy to say yes when you have the talent and the wherewithal to play within the corrupt system.
'You had the power to stop this,' Shah said. 'To do business with corrupt power encourages it.'
Hooker, 76, is the first of the so-called ComEd Four defendants to be sentenced, more than two years after their landmark trial ended in sweeping guilty verdicts. Sentencing hearings for former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and lobbyist Michael McClain, who was Madigan's top confidant, are set for next week.
The fourth defendant, consultant and former City Club of Chicago head Jay Doherty, is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
Madigan, meanwhile, was convicted in a separate trial of an array of schemes that included the ComEd bribery payments. He was sentenced earlier this month to 7 1/2 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors had asked for nearly five years in prison for Hooker. His attorneys requested just a year of probation, citing their client's his age, his lack of criminal history and saying there was zero risk he would commit a crime again. They also submitted dozens of character letters from people of all walks of life attesting to Hooker's history of generosity and selflessness.
But in asking for a 56-month prison term, prosecutors wrote that Hooker — a top internal lobbyist at ComEd known for his quippy 'Hookerisms' such as: 'That which is understood need not be mentioned' — was instrumental in devising the plan to funnel the payments to ghost 'subcontractors' who were actually cronies in the 13th Ward organization Madigan ran.
Hooker was even captured on an FBI wiretap bragging about the arrangement with McClain.
'We came up with this plan and between him, our friend, and, uh, Tim (Mapes), and the alderman (Frank Olivo), they thought it was great,' Hooker told McClain on the recording.
'Hooker's criminal conduct, designed to give ComEd an improper 'leg up' in its legislation, is extremely serious, as he deceived internal auditors, rate payers and shareholders and abused the highest levels of state government,' wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Streicker, Diane MacArthur and Julia Schwartz in their 52-page filing.
Prosecutors also said Hooker repeatedly perjured himself when he testified in his own defense at trial, including when he told the jury that he hired Madigan's 13th Ward associates for their 'value' to ComEd.
'They had no relevant experience and were not needed by the company,' the prosecution memo stated. 'Instead, their true 'value' was to Madigan.'
Hooker and his three co-defendants were convicted on all counts in May 2023 after a two-month trial. Shah later tossed some of those counts due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year, but denied defense requests to delay the sentencing hearings any further.
In addition to the scheme to pay Madigan-related subcontractors, prosecutors alleged ComEd also hired a clouted law firm run by political operative Victor Reyes, distributed numerous college internships within Madigan's 13th Ward fiefdom, and backed former McPier chief Juan Ochoa, the friend of a Madigan ally, for an $80,000-a-year seat on the utility's board of directors, the indictment alleged.
In return, prosecutors alleged, Madigan used his influence over the General Assembly to help ComEd score a series of huge legislative victories that not only rescued the company from financial instability but led to record-breaking, billion-dollar profits.
Among them was the 2011 smart grid bill that set a built-in formula for the rates ComEd could charge customers, avoiding battles with the Illinois Commerce Commission, according to the charges. ComEd also leaned on Madigan's office to help pass the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016, which kept the formula rate in place and also rescued two nuclear plants run by an affiliated company, Exelon Generation.
In her 71-page sentencing filing, Hooker's attorney, Jacqueline Jacobson, chronicled his inspirational life story, rising from the violence and poverty of Chicago's West Side and later battling the 'pervasive discrimination of corporate America in the 1960s' to become a top executive at a Fortune 500 utility.
Jacobson also downplayed the seriousness of Hooker's offense, writing that he 'faces jail for books and records violations that occurred five years after he retired from ComEd, for which he received no benefit.'
'From acting as a surrogate father, to serving as a role model, to helping neighbors and friends, John has dedicated his life to changing people's lives for the better,' the defense memo stated. 'The guilty verdict is the antithesis to an otherwise praiseworthy life filled with repeated and continuous good deeds, selflessness, and ethical conduct.'
At trial, defense attorneys argued repeatedly that the government is seeking to criminalize legal lobbying and job recommendations that are at the heart of the state's legitimate political system.
They ripped the government's star witness, former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, as a liar and opportunist who was so terrified when FBI agents confronted him in January 2019 that he flipped without even consulting a lawyer and agreed to secretly record his friends.
Marquez testified in March 2023 that the roster of 'subcontractors' hired by ComEd was curated by McClain and read like a who's who of Madigan's vaunted political operation, including two legendary precinct captains, a former assistant majority leader in the House and two former Chicago aldermen at the center of Madigan's Southwest Side base of power.
Over the course of eight years, ComEd paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars, even though they had no particular expertise and ultimately did virtually no work for the utility. Some seemed to be downright incompetent, Marquez told the jury.
On cross-examination, Marquez, who pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing, acknowledged that there was 'no guarantee' that Madigan was going to help pass ComEd bills, but added that the company still tried to make him happy because 'not doing it would cause us to be negatively looked on by' the speaker.
He also admitted that he initially told the FBI he didn't believe any of it was bribery.
'I know that they were brought on as a favor to Michael Madigan,' Marquez testified on direct examination. 'For Madigan to see ComEd positively. So that he could perhaps be helpful for our legislative agenda in Springfield.'
Hooker, meanwhile, took a huge risk and testified in his own defense. Under questioning by McClain's attorney, Patrick Cotter, Hooker agreed that the scheme as alleged by prosecutors sounded preposterous.
'In all your years of experience, did you ever think for one minute that Mike Madigan would risk his speakership and his power to get a few more people some jobs at ComEd?' Cotter asked, his voice rising to a shout. 'Some summer interns? … Anybody?'
'No, I did not,' Hooker answered.
'It's a crazy idea, isn't it?' Cotter shot back.
'It's a bad idea,' Hooker agreed.
Hooker was also taken through transcripts, read in court line by line, of the wiretapped recordings at the center of the case, explaining what he meant down to the word. He was even at one point asked to explain why he laughed at certain points in the calls.
McClain, in one of the recordings, for instance, told Hooker: 'We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us. It's that simple.'
Hooker testified he didn't believe it was true that they 'had' to hire anyone.
'To me, that's just me and McClain joshing around,' he said.
In their memo Monday, prosecutors singled out that statement Hooker made in court and said it was an obvious lie.
'Hooker verbally agreed with (McClain) when he thought nobody was listening,' prosecutors wrote.
'His agreement is consistent with the behavior of the conspirators who continued to advocate for the payment of the subcontractors to prevent Madigan from taking retributive action against ComEd.'
Hooker's lawyers denied that he lied about that or anything else, arguing in their memo that he should not be punished for exercising his constitutional right to testify and that failing to recall past events accurately is not enough to prove perjury.
'The obstruction of justice enhancement requires a finding of willfulness, not confusion, mistake, or faulty memory,' Jacobson wrote.