CHICAGO (AP) – The U.S. Attorney’s office says electric utility ComEd has agreed to pay $200 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a long-running bribery scheme that implicates Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Federal prosecutors announced Friday that ComEd had admitted that it arranged jobs, subcontracted work and made monetary payments related to those jobs.
That elected official is identified as “Public Official A” in the release. A deferred prosecution agreement for ComEd filed in federal court states that “Public Official A” is the Illinois House Speaker, but Madigan is not mentioned by name. Madigan’s spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment Friday and didn’t immediately respond to a voice message.
The Chicago Tribune reports at an unrelated news conference in Waukegan, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was “deeply troubled and frankly I’m furious” about the reports of the federal case involving ComEd and Madigan.
“The speaker has a lot that he needs to answer for — to authorities, to investigators and most importantly to the people of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “If these allegations of wrongdoing by the speaker are true, there is no question that he will have betrayed the public trust and he must resign.”
