Joseph McDermott, a Chicago Public Schools teacher, is projecting that former House Speaker Michael Madigan will be imprisoned following the conviction of the ComEd Four. | The Center Square
Joseph McDermott, a Chicago Public Schools teacher, is projecting that former House Speaker Michael Madigan will be imprisoned following the conviction of the ComEd Four. | The Center Square
Joseph McDermott, a Chicago Public Schools teacher, is projecting that former House Speaker Michael Madigan will be imprisoned following the conviction of the ComEd Four.
"It’s been two months since I asked this question. His four conspirators/flunkies just got convicted," McDermott said on Facebook. "I think they flip on the speaker to lighten their own sentence. The velvet hammer is going to the slammer.”
McDermott linked to a previous statement he made about bringing Madigan to justice.
“Random question. Will Mike Madigan die in prison? Or, will he ever see the inside of a jail cell?”
McDermott’s LinkedIn profile notes he is a resident of Elmhurst who works for CPS.
McDermott’s comments come after come after former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker along with Madigan’s right-hand man Michael McClain, and lobbyist Jay Doherty, who previously ran the City Club of Chicago, were convicted of scheming to pay $1.3 million to Madigan-connected people and companies. As part of the scheme, ComEd provided jobs – some of which were no show – and contracts to those with connections to Madigan who at the time controlled the Democratic Party and had wielded power as the state’s most powerful politician as the longest-serving state House Speaker in the nation. ComEd, the state’s largest utility, engaged in the scheme to influence Madigan in order to get preferential treatment in the state House. ComEd paid a $200 million fine in July 2020 and admitted to the scheme.
Amanda Schnitker Sayers, a juror in the ComEd Four trial, said former House Speaker Michael Madigan is responsible for the corruption to which ComEd employees and those connected to them succumbed, Chicago City Wire reported.
"We're tired of political corruption,” Sayers said after the verdict, according to The Center Square. "We're hoping this is a first step."
Sayers said it was the ex-Speaker who "did cause this all to happen.”
"We all agreed that lobbying is necessary ... this is not lobbying,” she added in response to the defense attorney's argument that the "ComEd Four" were legally lobbying.
Alerts Sign-up