Prosecutors also played several undercover videotaped meetings between their star witness and the "ComEd Four" in court Tuesday.
Government informant 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."
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By the spring of 2018, ComEd was paying five of Mike Madigan's political associates a combined $348,000 a year to do little to no-work jobs.
On May 16, 2018, with the FBI listening in, ComEd executive Marquez asked Madigan confidant/lobbyist Michael McClain what to pay former 23rd Ward Alderman Mike Zalewski.
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MARQUEZ: Um. Did you get my message?
MCCLAIN: That you wanted to talk about Zalewski?
MARQUEZ: Yeah. So Anne. Anne mentioned your conversation with her about, about Mike. Um, what were you thinking numbers wise? Was there-
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MCCLAIN: Five. Five.
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It was, according to Marquez, the playing of calls such as this one that in January of 2019 turned him into the government's informant as they tried to build a bribery case against the utility company and the "ComEd Four."
"Don't put anything in writing," McClain advised between bites of pizza at a meeting in Springfield a few weeks later.
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Marquez was videotaping the lunch, as he did separate meetings and calls over the coming days and weeks with defendants Anne Pramaggiore, John Hooker and Jay Doherty. Meetings during which, at the direction of the FBI, he expressed concern about how to justify the money being paid to the subcontractors to the company's new CEO, Joe Dominguez.
"Do they do anything for me on a day-to-day basis? No," Jay Doherty said during a February 13th meeting. "My bottom line advice would be 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' with those guys."
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Doherty went on to tell Marquez to remind the new CEO that their money comes from Springfield. By March, the subcontractor budget had been approved.
Marquez remains on the stand and is expected to continue his testimony for a third straight day when the trial resumes Wednesday morning.