Overview
- A three-judge Seventh Circuit panel ordered the immediate release of Anne Pramaggiore and Michael McClain on Tuesday and said Pramaggiore will receive a new trial, with McClain’s appeal raising a substantial question likely to lead to one.
- The panel’s brief order directed the government to release both defendants “forthwith,” and the Bureau of Prisons confirmed late Wednesday that they were out of custody.
- During oral arguments, judges pressed prosecutors on whether the conspiracy verdict could rest on now-invalid bribery theories after a 2024 Supreme Court decision limited prosecutions that do not tie payments to a specific official act.
- Prosecutors said ComEd steered about $1.3 million over eight years to five associates of then–House Speaker Michael Madigan through no-work subcontractor deals to help the utility’s legislation; co-defendants John Hooker and Jay Doherty did not appeal and have been released to halfway houses.
- The U.S. attorney’s office has not said if it will seek retrials, and legal analysts note the appeals court’s reasoning could shape Madigan’s separate, pending appeal.