Ex-lobbyist Mike McClain, left, longtime confidant to former House Speaker Michael Madigan, right, are pictured in previous appearances at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago in relation to their public corruption trials. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)

After a Michael Madigan ally was fired amid sexual harassment allegations, the former Illinois House speaker’s longtime confidant Michael McClain allegedly sought to collect and conceal payments for that ally under the guise he’d be doing actual work.

Jurors in Michael Madigan’s corruption trial on Thursday heard recorded phone conversations in which McClain detailed his plans to collect money for former Madigan staffer Kevin Quinn through job contracts to make it appear he was being paid for real work “in case the IRS checked us out.”

Madigan, 82, and his longtime confidant McClain, 77, are charged with racketeering, bribery and wire fraud. They have each pleaded not guilty. The former House speaker is alleged to have orchestrated multiple corruption schemes, wielding his significant political power to enrich himself and reward loyal allies.

The most substantial of those alleged schemes involved utility giant ComEd as prosecutors have claimed Madigan and McClain arranged subcontractor jobs for several of the speaker’s “political cronies” who actually did little or no work for the company. In exchange, Madigan allegedly supported critical legislation in Springfield that benefitted ComEd.

But prosecutors allege this Quinn scheme was also part of that racketeering enterprise.

Quinn, who’d long worked as an aide for the speaker, was accused in early 2018 of repeatedly making unwanted advances to Madigan staffer Alaina Hampton.

Hours before Hampton went public with her story, Madigan fired Quinn. Jurors were told about “misconduct” allegations against Quinn, but the specific details were not presented in court following a pretrial ruling by U.S. District Judge John Blakey.  

Hampton is set to testify next week, but prosecutors presented evidence Thursday allegedly showing McClain arranged for multiple people to make consulting payments to Quinn because he was unable to find a job after being fired.

Will Cousineau, Madigan’s former issues director, on Thursday testified about an August 2018 phone conversation he had with McClain in which McClain told Cousineau he was trying to find five or six people to each pay Quinn $1,000 per month over a six month period.

In one August 2018 wiretapped phone conversation played for jurors Thursday, Cousineau — who by this point had left the speaker’s office and was working as a private lobbyist — told McClain that he didn’t want to simply assign Quinn to write a “bulls--t report” as McClain had suggested, but instead wanted him to do actual work.

Prosecutors claim the report McClain had suggested was a “proposed sham” to help him conceal payments to Quinn.

McClain in another call that same month stated that “(a)t one point in time I had, uh, maybe five consultants working for me … And all they ever really did is give me pieces of paper.”

Cousineau testified he was “incredibly concerned” by McClain’s pitch, but McClain on one call assured him that by having that report done, there would be work product to present “in case the IRS checked us out” and that “as far as I’m concerned, except for the people that are signing on, no one else even knows about it except for our friend” — a reference to Madigan.

“I’d like to keep the people that know this real small,” McClain said on the call. “It’s too easy for people to babble. You know what I mean?”

Cousineau said he did present the idea to the lobbying firm he was working at, whcih authorized the payments to Quinn.

Before jurors could hear the McClain calls Thursday, attorneys argued about the admissibility of that evidence for more than an hour, as both Madigan and McClain’s defense teams claimed that the Quinn incident was separate from the allegations outlined in the racketeering enterprise count.

Specifically, they argued that while payments to the ComEd subcontractors were allegedly concealed because those workers were essentially doing no work, the payments to Quinn were concealed due to the sensitive nature of the sexual harassment allegations made against him.

“This situation is entirely different,” Madigan attorney Todd Pugh argued.

But prosecutors disagreed, claiming the Quinn payments and the ComEd subcontractor payments involved “the same players, same means, same methods, same type of concealment,” surrounding a reward paid out to a loyal Madigan ally.

“This is dead-bang within the allegations of Count 1, no question about it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said.

Blakey ultimately sided with the government, allowing jurors to hear the evidence.

Capitol News Illinois contributed to this report.