Many phrases have been thrown round to explain Michael McClain, the longtime lobbyist from downstate Quincy.
He’s been referred to as a “henchman,” “bag man,” and “fixer” for convicted former Illinois Home Speaker Michael J. Madigan, who was additionally McClain’s longtime pal.
Moments earlier than sentencing McClain to jail Thursday, U.S. District Decide Manish Shah cited all three. He referred to as them “crude phrases.” However, he mentioned, “they do convey a way of your function.”
“You most well-liked secrecy and lies,” Shah advised him. “You most well-liked Mr. Madigan. You selected his means, and the implications of that alternative are yours to bear.”
Then Shah sentenced McClain, 77, to 2 years in jail for his function in a prolonged conspiracy to illegally sway Madigan to profit ComEd’s legislative agenda in Springfield. He did so after McClain’s lawyer, Patrick Cotter, insisted McClain will wrestle in jail resulting from his poor well being.
“I don’t consider he deserves to stay the rest of his life with out hope,” Cotter mentioned.
McClain declined to talk earlier than studying his sentence, apart from to “praise and say how endearing Pat Cotter” had been whereas representing him. After Shah handed down the sentence and left the bench, McClain shared a hug together with his spouse and different relations.
They left the Dirksen Federal Courthouse with out commenting to reporters.
There could also be no determine, in need of Madigan, extra central to the feds’ prolonged investigation of corruption within the final decade than McClain. A number of juries have heard about his essential function as Madigan’s messenger and emissary in Springfield.
McClain believed he had an “unbreakable” bond with Madigan, the feds say. It dates again to the Nineteen Seventies, after they served collectively within the Illinois Legislature. However whereas Madigan remained and amassed nice energy as Home speaker, McClain left workplace and moved on to lobbying.
And whereas Madigan is quiet and reserved, McClain comes throughout in emails and wiretapped cellphone calls as chatty and boastful, at occasions profane — and undoubtedly with a aptitude for the dramatic.
“I’m on the bridge with my musket standing with and for the Madigan household,” McClain wrote in a 2016 letter saying his retirement to Madigan. “I’ll by no means depart your facet.”
“I do know the drill and so do you,” he wrote in an e-mail that very same yr to the CEO of ComEd. “… Our Buddy will name me after which I’ll name you. Is that this a drill we should undergo?”
In 2018 he even complained to Madigan’s son about individuals who work for regulated utilities however had been “offended if individuals ask for favors.”
“Howdy?” he mentioned. “Dumb s—s.”
Cotter on Thursday insisted that McClain is “rather more than a handful of quotes from emails or tapes and even among the testimony at trial.” In a heartfelt attraction to the choose, he argued that McClain is a “good man” with a “good soul” whose repute has been “destroyed” despite the fact that he believes he remained on the proper facet of the regulation.
“He didn’t intend to bribe Mike Madigan,” Cotter mentioned.
However whereas handing down his sentence, Shah cited the decision by which McClain complained that “dumb s—s” had been offended by requests for favors. To want honesty and transparency, the choose insisted, “that’s not dumb.”
“It’s, sadly, brave,” he mentioned.
Shah additionally advised McClain that it’s “necessary for the punishment to mirror the cruel incontrovertible fact that this was corruption.”
McClain confronted sentencing for his Could 2023 conviction. That’s when a jury discovered him responsible for his function within the prolonged ComEd conspiracy, together with former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime Metropolis Membership President Jay Doherty.
Shah sentenced Pramaggiore earlier this week to two years in jail. He gave Hooker 18 months behind bars. Doherty is because of be sentenced Aug. 5, and prosecutors have requested for 15 months in jail.
The sentencings had been lengthy delayed by machinations on the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
McClain additionally confronted trial with Madigan final fall. However jurors in that case returned no verdict relating to McClain. The panel as a substitute convicted Madigan of 10 counts, together with for his function within the ComEd plot, and he’s been sentenced to 7 ½ years in jail.
The previous speaker has requested to stay free whereas interesting his conviction. Cotter signaled Thursday that he’d make the identical request for McClain. In any other case, Madigan is due in jail Oct. 13, and McClain is due Oct. 30.
Jurors in each trials heard that ComEd paid $1.3 million to 5 Madigan allies over eight years to curry favor with the highly effective Southwest Aspect Democrat. The cash was paid by way of intermediaries, and the recipients did hardly any work for ComEd.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Diane MacArthur advised Shah on Thursday that McClain put “Madigan’s calls for above all else — together with the regulation.”
“Michael McClain’s efforts on behalf of Michael Madigan allowed Madigan to make use of ComEd like a benefit-fulfillment warehouse, with Michael McClain pulling no-show jobs and different advantages off the shelf, boxing them up and delivering them straight to the speaker,” she mentioned.
The feds say McClain was “unrelenting” in making an attempt to safe jobs and contracts for others tied to Madigan. That included bids to land a contract for the politically linked Reyes Kurson regulation agency and a seat on ComEd’s board for businessman Juan Ochoa.
In a little bit of a shock transfer, MacArthur solely sought a three-year sentence for McClain. The feds in earlier courtroom filings had sought a sentence of almost six years. She mentioned the transfer was primarily based on the sentences handed to Pramaggiore and Hooker, in addition to McClain’s well being.
Cotter spoke to the choose about McClain’s medical points whereas avoiding particulars to guard his consumer’s privateness. He mentioned McClain could have bother strolling, listening to and seeing in jail.
Any imprisonment, he mentioned, would quantity to a “very critical sentence.”
Cotter advised the choose that jail will likely be extra painful and tough for McClain than for many different inmates, even these his age.
Nonetheless, Cotter appeared to acknowledge the probability that McClain would wind up behind bars.
And ultimately, he merely requested Shah to depart McClain with some “hope of residing lengthy sufficient to return to his household.”
