Crime & Law

Pair Convicted in ‘ComEd Four’ Conspiracy Case To Be Released From Prison as Court Set To Order New Trial

Anne Pramaggiore and Michael McClain, two of the key players in the ComEd conspiracy case involving former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, are both set to be released from prison and will be granted a new trial after an appellate court signaled it will toss out their landmark convictions.

Pramaggiore, the former ComEd and Exelon CEO, and McClain, who served as Madigan’s right-hand man for decades, were each found guilty of conspiracy and willfully falsifying the company’s books as part of the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial.  Both are currently serving two-year prison sentences, but on Tuesday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ordered their release on bail and stated its “opinion granting a new trial will follow.”

“Both Pramaggiore and McClain are entitled to release,” the court wrote in its one-page order Tuesday. “The United States must make arrangements to release Pramaggiore and McClain from federal custody forthwith. Pragmaggiore and McClain must report to pretrial services in the Northern District of Illinois and comply with release conditions as ordered by the district court.”

That ruling came just hours after attorneys for the pair asked the court to throw out their convictions.

Federal prosecutors at trial claimed Pramaggiore was a key leader in a yearslong criminal conspiracy that sought to “corrupt the highest levels of state government” by bribing Madigan to secure his support on critical energy legislation that was beneficial to ComEd.

She and McClain — who were convicted along with ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former contract lobbyist Jay Doherty — did so by arranging for ComEd to pay $1.3 million to Madigan allies who were hired as subcontractors, but who actually did virtually no work for the utility company.

McClain, a former lobbyist whose words and voice were presented at trial through numerous emails and secretly recorded phone calls, was “unrelenting” in his efforts to secure jobs and payments for Madigan allies, according to prosecutors.

A federal judge previously tossed out bribery-related convictions from that trial.

Pramaggiore’s spokesperson Mark Herr in a statement Tuesday his client and her attorneys are “pleased” she will be released from prison while the court “finalizes its opinion ordering a new trial in light of the intervening Supreme Court decisions rejecting the government’s theories.”

“We thank the Seventh Circuit for moving as swiftly as it did to grant bail,” he said in a statement. “It has never made sense that Anne Pramaggiore has served a single day in prison, much less the three months she has served — for ‘crimes’ the Supreme Court said did not exist.”

Pramaggiore previously filed a motion for bond, which the Seventh Circuit rejected last November before she began serving her prison sentence.

As part of his argument in court Tuesday morning, Pramaggiore’s attorney Paul Clement told the three-judge panel that if they are “convinced that there needs to be a new trial here, then you should be convinced that my client should not be in prison.”

Clement offered to file a renewed bond motion Tuesday but was told by the court that would not be necessary. The court’s bail decision came hours later.

Madigan was convicted last year at a separate trial over his involvement in the ComEd bribery and other corruption schemes. His attorneys presented their appellate case to the Seventh Circuit last week, arguing the government’s prosecution of their client “pushed federal bribery law over the boundaries set by the Supreme Court.”

They took issue with what they called “erroneous” instructions given to jurors over the definition of the term “corruptly” and alleged federal prosecutors engaged in a “blind pursuit of Madigan.”

The Seventh Circuit has not yet ruled on his appeal. Madigan remains serving a 7.5-year sentence at a federal prison in West Virginia.

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