North Cook News

The jury foreman of the ComEd Four trial is speaking out against former House Speaker Michael Madigan. 

Fresh off a two-and-a-half-month trial regarding corruption in state politics that saw the conviction of four, Sarah Goldenberg, a 34-year-old Arlington Heights resident, discussed the negative influence Madigan had on state politics. She said that given the facts unveiled during the trial, she feels Madigan is guilty of the 22 counts of public corruption he is facing. 

“It feels like a crime based on what I’ve heard,” Goldenberg told WSIU. “Who else has he done this to with the manipulation with the incentive of getting bills passed? If you are powerful enough to get a major conglomerate to do this, you’d also do this to other, smaller fish in the pond because bad behavior like this doesn’t strike once.”

Goldenberg said the scheme sounded "like the perfect job.”

“I would love to get a job where I get paid to do nothing, and I could live the good life because who wouldn’t want that? But I would want that without strings attached. And there were strings attached for these roles. And that is where the corruption and bribery is,” she said. “This was just such clear conspiracy and corruption and bribery that I have never seen before except for TV shows and movies.”

She also opined that FBI informant Fidel Marquez, who, "just kind of laid out traps for people to say stuff and they did so willingly,” should also be penalized. 

“I do hope he gets some form of punishment and doesn’t just get to walk,” Goldenberg said. “He only started working with the government in 2019 so he was part of this. And then this was his way out.”

Goldenberg’s comments come after former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker along with Madigan associate 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 Illinois 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 to get preferential treatment in the state House. ComEd paid a $200 million fine in July 2020 and admitted to the scheme.

The 81-year-old Madigan was in power as House Speaker from 1983 to 1995 and then from 1997 to 2021. He was an Illinois House member from 1971 to 2021 before stepping down amid the scandal. He is charged in a separate filing of 23 counts of public corruption related to the ComEd scandal and is facing a single count of public corruption from a similar scheme with AT&T. Madigan will go on trial in April 2024. 

Despite being under investigation, Madigan reportedly took part in the 2022 election campaign. Additionally, he transferred the last $10 million from his campaign budget to his defense fund. 

The question of so-called “no-show” jobs arises just after former State Senator Tom Cullerton was spotted working in Springfield as a lobbyist after serving jail time for taking a no-show position from the Teamsters.