Lake County Gazette

Former state representative Scott Drury from Highwood testified in the case of the “ComEd Four.” The public corruption trial began earlier this week and is set to span two months. 

The case centers on longtime associate to former House Speaker Michael Madigan Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and lobbyist and former City Club of Chicago head Jay Doherty. Drury, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, took the stand at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Thursday. 

“The House rules gave the speaker ultimate power,” Drury said, NBC 5 Chicago reported.

According to Drury, he was denied committee positions and none of his bills were brought up in the House after he declined to vote for Madigan as speaker. 

“It’s a very disconcerting feeling,” Drury said, according to The Center Square. 

“They were the speaker’s rules. He controlled the flow of legislation ... no one else had that power.” Drury told prosecutors that when he decided to vote against the speaker no one else would join him. “Mike Madigan was the most powerful politician in Illinois,” he said. 

Madigan was the speaker for 36 years before stepping down after being indicted on sweeping corruption charges. 

Drury did not seek re-election to the House of Representatives in 2018 and had instead launched a gubernatorial bid but later in that campaign cycle, opted to run for attorney general after Madigan’s daughter Lisa Madigan chose not to run again. He did not get past the primary, according to Chicago Tribune. Lisa Madigan’s campaign was known to be given extraordinary assistance by her father. From 2013 to 2019 Drury represented the 58th District covering the communities of Bannockburn, Deerfield, Glencoe, Highwood, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, Northbrook, and North Chicago.

Opening arguments were heard the day before the former legislators testified. Capitol Fax noted Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker's opening statements. She argued, “The defendants sought to bribe Mike Madigan in order to influence his actions in the General Assembly, to ensure that he didn’t take action to hurt the company in the General Assembly and to reward past beneficial conduct to ComEd in the general assembly with legislation that was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” The four are accused of participating in a $150 million bribery scandal meant to sway favor with the former house speaker.

The trial is set to feature over 100 hours of audio collected throughout its duration. On one of the recordings that will be used in the trial, McClain said, “We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us.” He used euphemisms such as “our friend” or “a friend of ours” to refer to Madigan, tapes reveal, according to WTTW.

The 80-year-old Madigan will stand trial on 22 counts of corruption involving ComEd and one related to a different bribery conspiracy with AT&T by April next year. Madigan reportedly participated in the 2022 election campaign while facing charges, despite losing his leadership roles in the Democratic party and the General Assembly. Also, he has taken the final $10 million from his campaign budget and put it toward his defense fund.