Crime & Law

Prosecutors Seek 56 Month Prison Term for John Hooker, First of ‘ComEd Four’ to be Sentenced in Madigan Bribery Scheme

Federal prosecutors say John Hooker, the first of four former Commonwealth Edison officials to be sentenced for conspiring to bribe ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, repeatedly lied on the witness stand and should spend more than four years in prison.

In a new sentencing memo filed this week, the feds asked a judge to issue Hooker, a former ComEd exec, a prison sentence of 56 months following his conviction on charges including bribery conspiracy and willfully falsifying the utility company’s books.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker wrote in the government’s filing that such a sentence is warranted due to “the seriousness of Hooker’s crimes, his obstructive conduct in lying on the witness stand, the need to promote respect for the law and provide just punishment, and the need to deter other business leaders and lobbyists from committing similar crimes.”

Hooker, 76, spent decades at ComEd, including serving as the company’s executive vice president of legislative and external affairs from 2008 until he retired in 2012. He then worked as an external lobbyist for ComEd until 2019, a role through which prosecutors said he remained “directly involved in ComEd’s efforts to advance its legislative agenda in Springfield.”

But during that time, prosecutors said Hooker “orchestrated a near decade long conspiracy in which ComEd conferred a stream of benefits on Speaker Madigan.”

Hooker and the rest of the so-called “ComEd Four” — former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, Madigan’s longtime confidant Michael McClain, and ex-ComEd consultant Jay Doherty — were each convicted in 2023 after prosecutors alleged they had plotted to give “a continuous stream of benefits” to “corruptly influence and reward Madigan” in order to get his support on Springfield legislation that would benefit the utility company.

The four did so by arranging for ComEd to pay $1.3 million to Madigan allies who were hired as subcontractors, but who actually did little or no work for the utility company. Madigan himself was convicted at a separate trial earlier this year and was sentenced in June to more than seven years in prison.

But rather than paying them directly, prosecutors said Hooker and others arranged for them to be paid through an intermediary — Doherty — in an effort to conceal the payments.

Jurors at the ComEd Four trial heard from Fidel Marquez, ComEd’s vice president of government affairs turned government mole after he secretly recorded numerous conversations with the defendants and later pleaded guilty to a bribery charge.

In one of those conversations from early 2019, Marquez asked Doherty about the subcontractors: “Do they do anything or what do they do? What do you have them doing?”

Doherty replied: “Not much.” He then goes on to warn Marquez, saying he wouldn’t “tinker” with the specifics of the contract.

“Your money comes from Springfield, ComEd money,” Doherty said in the recording. “My bottom line advice would be, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it with those guys.”

In another call obtained through a government wiretap, McClain told Hooker in regards to the subcontractors, “We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us.”

“As Hooker and the other conspirators’ recorded conversations make clear,” Streicker wrote, “the payments to Madigan’s associates were concealed to ensure it never came to light that ComEd was paying no-show jobs to influence a public official and to prevent any detectible (sic) ‘flow through’ from the payments to Madigan.”

Prosecutors also claim Hooker, who testified in his defense at trial, repeatedly lied to jurors when he denied having falsified any ComEd documents and when he claimed the subcontractor payment arrangement was done simply to keep additional management responsibilities off his plate.

Hooker also claimed he was “just joshing around” with McClain when they said they “had to” hire people because of Madigan. Prosecutors claim this too was a lie.

“Hooker verbally agreed with this statement when he thought nobody was listening,” Streicker wrote.

Hooker’s defense team asked that he receive a sentence of probation, citing his age, lack of criminal history and his “exemplary family, employment, and community history.”

“He is a role model and a leader whose support and selflessness has transformed and saved lives,” his defense team wrote in its own sentencing memo. “John Hooker is by all accounts an exceptional person. He did not benefit from his conduct, and his role was limited.”

Hooker is scheduled to be sentenced July 14.

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