Pritzker to Madigan: Answer up or step down

Guv grants House speaker is ‘innocent until proven guilty, but that’s not our standard for holding higher office’

Gov. Pritzker told House Speaker Michael Madigan on Thursday to “stand in front of the press and the people and answer every last question to their satisfaction.” (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

By Ted Cox

The governor told Michael Madigan Thursday to give a full account of his role in the ongoing ComEd federal bribery probe or step down as speaker of the House.

A day after the U.S. Justice Department dropped four new indictments on Madigan confidants and high-ranking officials with the utility — building on a case first announced in July with ComEd’s paying a $200 million fine and admitting to bribery in an agreement to defer prosecution — Gov. Pritzker granted that “anyone accused of a crime, and those who face accusations of wrongdoing, are innocent until proven guilty. But that’s not our standard for holding higher office.”

The indictments announced at the end of the day Wednesday charged Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, and former City Club of Chicago President Jay Doherty with various forms of corruption, including bribery and political favoritism and patronage. Doherty was charged with acting as a bag man in making bribery payoffs, and Pramaggiore was accused of falsifying ComEd records explaining the utility’s dealings with Doherty’s firm. Madigan was not charged, but as in the case announced in July he was clearly identified as “Public Official A,” with the deeds the accused are charged with intended to curry favor with the House speaker. The indictment charged that they would refer to Madigan knowingly as “our friend” or “a friend of ours.”

“The pay-to-play, quid pro quo situations outlined in these indictments released last night are unspeakably wrong. Anyone who concludes otherwise is insulting the public,” Pritzker said Thursday in opening his daily coronavirus briefing at the Thompson Center to questions from reporters.

“If Speaker Madigan wants to continue in a position of enormous public trust, with such a serious ethical cloud hanging over his head, then he has to — at the very least — be willing to stand in front of the press and the people and answer every last question to their satisfaction,” the governor added. “Written statements and dodged investigatory hearings are not going to cut it. If the speaker cannot commit to that level of transparency, then the time has come for him to resign as speaker.”

“If Speaker Madigan wants to continue in a position of enormous public trust … then he has to — at the very least — be willing to stand in front of the press and the people and answer every last question to their satisfaction.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (Illinois.gov)

Pritzker was referring to how Madigan has remained mum on the federal probe since it came to light except to claim innocence. The House has held investigatory hearings, but has not ordered Madigan to defend himself. Pritzker made that demand, while also making it clear that the House leadership position remains in the hands of state representatives, even as many lined up Wednesday night and during the day Thursday to say they would not be voting for Madigan as speaker when the General Assembly launches its new session next year.

“Legislators have a right to make their own decisions about who leads them,” Pritzker said. “These legislators alone hold the unique power to elect the Illinois speaker. And I trust that they will think long and hard about the duties that they owe to the people that we all work for.

“The legislators themselves know what they need to consider,” he added. “They’re the ones who ultimately are going to decide whether the speaker is going to continue.”

Madigan issued a statement Thursday denying any wrongdoing and insisting he was unaware of the attempts to influence him. “The indictment returned Wednesday does not allege any criminal misconduct on my part. I have not been accused of or charged with any wrongdoing,” Madigan stated. “To the extent that anyone at ComEd or Exelon believed they could influence my conduct as a legislator by hiring someone I may have recommended, who worked for me, or who did political work for me, they were fundamentally mistaken. If they even harbored the thought that they could bribe or influence me, they would have failed miserably,” Madigan said. “I take offense at any notion otherwise. To the extent anyone may have suggested to others that I could be influenced, then they, too, were wrong. Had I known about it, I would have made every effort to put a stop to it.”

The four indicted have also claimed innocence.

Madigan was first elected to the House from a southwest Chicago district in 1971, and has served as speaker for all but two years when Republicans had a majority since assuming the position in 1983.

The governor bemoaned conducting a “political circus” in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. He said his top priority in taking office two years ago was to “end the massive dysfunction of the Rauner years,” and he made it clear that the corruption case surrounding Madigan was undermining that goal.