Page 4 - Former Comed News Today

Fidel Marquez took the stand for a second day as the U.S. attorney's office tried to make its bribery case against the "ComEd Four."

Will Cousineau took the witness stand after securing letters from the feds granting him immunity and making clear he’s not a target of an investigation. Then he listened as prosecutors played a December 2018 call he’d participated in and which was secretly recorded by the FBI.

“I understand we have a lot of people walking around trying to find things to complain about,” Madigan is heard saying at the meeting. “Every once in a while, the speaker gets to do what he wants to do.”

A close, longtime staffer for former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan took the stand in the ComEd bribery trial Thursday, testifying under immunity about secretly recorded 2018 discussions about House leadership in which a longtime Madigan confidant participated.

Today’s update is about an eight-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

“I understand we have a lot of people walking around trying to find things to complain about,” Madigan is heard saying. “Every once in a while, the speaker gets to do what he wants to do.”

A close, longtime staffer for former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan took the stand in the ComEd bribery trial Thursday, testifying under immunity...

ComEd’s former general counsel said he was told to sign the law firm of political operative Victor Reyes to an unusual three-year contract guaranteeing Reyes’ firm 850 hours of legal work a year.

For the first time Thursday, jurors in the bribery trial of Michael McClain and three other political power players heard Madigan’s voice on secret recordings.

A defense attorney for one of the four allies of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan who are trial countered that the case is marked by “overzealousness” and lacks hard evidence to back up the allegations.