Prosecutors question ex-ComEd CEO on her knowledge about do-nothing subcontractors
CHICAGO (CBS) – Federal prosecutors got their chance to question former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore on Tuesday in the ComEd bribery trial.
She continued denying any part in bribing or illegally influencing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
CBS 2's Tara Molina spent the day at the federal courthouse where prosecutors did try to poke some holes in her testimony.
Federal prosecutors drilled into Pramaggiore's testimony related to Madigan and her knowledge of his subcontractors. During that questioning, Pramaggiore brought up her interview with the federal government in 2019, something the jury didn't know about, opening that up for questioning too.
Pramaggiore's move to testify in her own defense is rare. She's one of the four facing charges ranging from bribery to falsifying records.
The others are former ComEd lobbyist Mike McClain, retired ComEd Vice President John Hooker and former head of the City Club of Chicago and ComEd consultant Jay Doherty.
A big focus of the cross-examination on Tuesday was Pramaggiore's knowledge of subcontractors, allies of Madigan.
Prosecutors spent serious time during the trial detailing how they said ComEd got legislation passed by influencing and paying off Madigan's people. That included payments ComEd made to allies of Madigan, those subcontractors, who prosecutors said paid thousands of dollars a month by the company, but never did any real work for the utility company.
On Monday, Pramaggiore claimed she wasn't aware those subcontractors were related to Madigan until the investigation went public.
But during cross-examination on Tuesday, prosecutors drilled holes in that testimony, pointing to a recorded call made with a ComEd executive in February of 2019, just months before Pramaggiore's cell phone was seized by the FBI. The executive alerted Pramaggiore there were ComEd subcontractors doing nothing but collecting checks.
Months later, in September of 2019, Pramaggiore sat down for an interview with the federal government and told investigators she didn't know anything about subcontractors.
At the time, she didn't know the February call had been recorded.
Later in that meeting with the feds, they played the call for her and that's when the interview ended.
Prosecutors doubled down, asking Pramaggiore to confirm she was testifying that she forgot the entire recorded phone conversation before that interview. She replied simply: "I am."
Fellow defendant Hooker also took the stand on Tuesday afternoon to testify in his own defense, focusing on the ComEd legislation he was involved with.
His testimony is expected to continue on Wednesday.
