Federal judge to end Madigan-related criminal case against AT&T Illinois

For the first time since 2020, soon neither AT&T Illinois nor ComEd will be facing criminal charges.

A federal judge on Wednesday agreed to dismiss a criminal case against AT&T Illinois, involving a criminal charge leveled two years ago against the telecommunications giant as part of a sprawling public corruption investigation into the company's former president and ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The dismissal of AT&T's criminal case was expected, coming at the end of a two-year agreement with the feds to defer prosecution. As part of the deal, the company agreed to cooperate with the feds and pay a $23 million fine. AT&T is still obligated to continue cooperating with prosecutors as part of the deal.

The deal was modeled after a similar one issued in 2020 to electrical company ComEd, which was also implicated in an alleged bribery scheme. ComEd was released from that deal in July 2023 after cooperating with the feds and paying a $200 million fine.

Prosecutors on Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso to dismiss AT&T Illinois' deferred prosecution agreement "based on Illinois Bell's compliance and cooperation, and with the expectation that Illinois Bell will continue to cooperate with the government."

The judge asked prosecutors to submit a proposed order in writing so he could terminate the case.

Company attorney Erin Nealy Cox noted that AT&T Illinois never pleaded guilty as part of the deal. But the company did implicate itself in crimes in its deferred prosecution agreement filed in October 2022.

In it, AT&T Illinois admitted to trying to bribe Madigan by paying $22,500 to former state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo, a Madigan ally and fellow Southwest Side Democrat, while AT&T was trying to pass a significant piece of legislation. The legislation sought to end AT&T Illinois’ costly obligation to provide landline telephone service to all Illinois residents.

The September trial of former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza, charged with bribery, ended in a hung jury. A judge said he will rule in December on a defense motion to acquit La Schiazza.

Madigan and Michael McClain, Madigan’s longtime friend who was widely seen as Madigan’s emissary in Springfield, were in another courtroom of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Wednesday, charged in a case that includes the same alleged scheme.