Jurors in the Michael Madigan corruption trial on Wednesday are expected to hear testimony from legendary 13th Ward precinct captain Edward Moody, the onetime Cook County Recorder of Deeds who prosecutors say raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from ComEd through do-nothing consulting contract.
Moody, who along with his twin brother, Fred, was one of Madigan’s most trusted election-time door-knockers, testified at the related “ComEd Four” bribery trial last year that the speaker made it clear that the money would dry up if Moody stopped working on campaigns.
“I control that contract and if you stop doing political work, you’ll lose that contract,” is how Moody recalled Madigan’s warning.
That message was reinforced when Moody met with Michael McClain, one of Madigan’s longtime confidants, at Huck Finn Restaurant on the Southwest Side. Moody testified McClain told him the contract was “a hell of a plum and that I owe the speaker big.”
Over the years, Moody was paid nearly $355,000 through various subcontracts, starting with McClain and later moving under ComEd consultant Jay Doherty and then lobbyist and Madigan ally Shaw Decremer, FBI Special Agent Katharine Heide testified in Madigan’s trial earlier this week.
Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise. Also charged is McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy. They have pleaded not guilty and deny wrongdoing.
Moody, who testified last year he’d been granted immunity by the U.S. attorney’s office, is expected to be one of the last witnesses to testify in the ComEd bribery section of sweeping indictment. Prosecutors allege the subcontractor payments were part of a larger scheme by the utility giant to provide a stream of benefits to Madigan in order to secure his help with legislation in Springfield.
Meanwhile, the emergence of Moody as a government cooperator sent shockwaves throughout Democratic circles, from Madigan’s base of power on Chicago’s Southwest Side to the insiders hanging out in the Illinois Capitol’s rotunda.
For years, the Moody twins promulgated an almost mythical reputation as a special-operations team that Madigan often referred to as his “best,” legendary for their door-knocking skills and a gift of persuasion that kept votes coming in for the speaker and his acolytes year after year.
They were the go-to soldiers dispatched all over the state when Madigan needed to turn around the voters in a critical legislative district in the heat of the campaign. And they did it time after time since the mid-1990s.
Jurors in Madigan’s trial have already heard plenty of testimony about Moody’s importance to Madigan’s political operation. Earlier this week, they also heard a pair of voicemails recovered from Doherty’s phone in May 2019.
The first message was left by McClain on Oct. 9, 2016, the day after Moody had been appointed to the Cook County Board of Commissioners.
“I talked to the speaker, uh, speaker talked to Ed Moody and so speaker suggested Ed and you get together and talk ’cause ya know, he’s got some disclosure things he’s gonna have to do at the county board level,” McClain said on the recording.
An hour and a half later, Moody called and left a voicemail of his own, which was also played for the jury. “Hey, Jay, this is, uh, Ed Moody calling. Uh, the Speaker wanted me to reach out to you, uh, if you wouldn’t mind returning my call.”
Prosecutors allege that to avoid raising eyebrows, Moody’s payments were moved three weeks later from Doherty’s account to Decremer, who did not lobby the city or county.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com