Mike Madigan trial updates: Star witness testifies in former Illinois House speaker trial

Video recordings between Mike McClain and Fidel Marquez were played for the jury Wednesday.

In the videos, they discussed ComEd's renewal of the Doherty contract, and how to justify the amounts to the new CEO, Joe Dominguez.

An email was shown from Marquez to other ComEd staff.

It said, "We are changing some contract staff around."

Marquez was asked if he assigned Ed Moody additional duties.

He said, "No, because Ed Moody was hired as a favor to Michael Madigan. I had no expectations for Ed Moody performing any work for ComEd."

Around this same time, they were expecting a vote on the FEJA bill.

A consulting contract shown stated Doherty would be paid $32,500 per month.

Marquez also talked about how Eddie Acevedo was difficult to work with.

He said he told McClain Acevedo would have to change his behavior to be hired as a lobbyist.

Acevedo was hired, and paid $5,000 a month.

"He did little to no work," Marquez said.

Marquez discussed the hiring of Mike Zalewski, who did no work.

Recordings regarding his hiring was played in court.

The defense is objecting to some of star witness former ComEd VP Fidel Marquez's testimony Wednesday.

An attorney argued there was a lack of foundation to Marquez's claim that he "didn't expect them to work because they were hired as a favor for Madigan."

The defense called this an opinion, but the judge and government disagreed.

Marquez will likely spend several days on the stand.

The prosecution got to the meat of the bribery with a ComEd VP Tuesday.

Fidel Marquez testified ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore instructed him to have three of Madigan's 13th Ward precinct captains paid by ComEd for doing no work.

ComEd made payments to the lobbyists through a legitimate lobbyist named Jay Doherty.

One of the lobbyists, Ed Moody, had been previously paid via Mike McClain's law firm.

Most of the questioning was surrounding the payments.

"I didn't expect them to do any work as they were hired as a favor to Michael Madigan," Marquez said.

He also spoke of Pramaggiore, who would express often how powerful Madigan was.

She wanted to make sure Madigan supported ComEd's agenda, he said.

Following the passage of FEJA, Marquez was given a list of items that had to be completed. Marquez said he knew the "requests were coming from Michael Madigan."

They involved hiring certain individuals and labor agreements.

Marquez also noticed Pramaggiore and Madigan had a close relationship, and one of her sons worked in the Illinois delegation under Tim Mapes.

Pramaggiore also traveled to Turkey as part of the Illinois Economic Delegation.

After his retirement, McClain was still included in ComEd's developmental strategy and communication plans.

Marquez said McClain had a close relationship with Madigan, and was often tasked with his assignments.

Marquez often heard the speaker referred to as "our friend" or "him" or "himself."

Court will resume Wednesday with Marquez.

A juror accidentally spoke with Madigan Tuesday.

The juror asked if she could take a chair, but did not realize she was addressing Madigan until she had already asked.

The judge told both parties not to converse.