Telephone conversation between Michael McClain and John Hooker | ComEd Exhibit 126-T

CASE TITLE: United States v. McClain, et al.

CASE NUMBER: 20 CR 812

ACTIVITY: Telephone conversation between Michael McClain and John Hooker

DATE: February 11, 2019

TIME: 10:36 p.m.

SESSION: 19533

(CLIP 1 BEGIN)

MCCLAIN: So I always joke with Madigan now, so we’ve gone from 750,000 that we had to pay affordable housing to 850 million to stop the rate freeze.

HOOKER: (Laughter.) Does he laugh when you do that to him?

MCCLAIN: Oh yeah.

HOOKER: So he told me when I met with him the other day, he said uh, I talked to him, he says, “You know, I met with uh, Fidel, and Veronica, and Joe, and that Veronica she’s, she’s not, she, she has uh, she has a lot of words she uses, she uses, she talks a lot don’t she?” I said, “Well, she,” I said, “She’s new and she just want to make sure she try to explain everything to its minute detail.” He said, “But Fidel didn’t say nothing, he sat there like a lump on a log.”

MCCLAIN: (Laughs.)

HOOKER: And so I said, “Yeah.” He said that, “Dominguez was his old usual self.” He said, “I’m, I, I’m really glad that they’ve got you around there, cause I am not sure they would not trip over themselves.” He said, “By the way, I need you to know, you know, it’s good you guys come back. It helps keep the General Assembly busy. That’s what we need that.”

MCCLAIN: (Laughs.)

(CLIP 1 END)

(CLIP 2 BEGIN)

HOOKER: So, h-how did you make out with Fidel when he came to talking about Doherty? Jay Doherty? I was gonna wait ‘til I saw ya.

MCCLAIN: Well, I just told him to be transparent with um, with um-

HOOKER: Joe.

MCCLAIN: Joe. I mean just like, Joe you told, I mean I, I said to Fidel, “You may not be able to say this, or you may be able to say that.” Just like, you ended up telling Fidel he had to hire Liz Brown because Mike Carrigan came to you. We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us. That’s, it’s that simple.

HOOKER: That’s how simple it is.

MCCLAIN: That’s how simple it is. So if you want to make it a Federal court suit, okay, but that’s how simple it is.

HOOKER: Right. Cause this was the best way to do it. That, this avenue is one of the best avenues.

MCCLAIN: Right.

HOOKER: If, if, it’s, it’s, it’s clean for all of us.

MCCLAIN: Right.

HOOKER: You know?

MCCLAIN: Right. We don’t have to worry about whether or not, I’m just making this up, whether or not Mike Zalewski, Sr., is doing any work or not. That’s up to Jay Doherty to prove that.

HOOKER: That’s right.

MCCLAIN: We’re not, we’re not, uh, monitoring his workload, whether, or not Mike Zalewki’s earning his five grand a month. That’s up to Jay Doherty.

HOOKER: That’s right. (Laughs.)

MCCLAIN: That’s why we set it up like this, John.

HOOKER: We came up with this plan and between him, our friend, and, and, and, and, uh, Tim, Tim, and the alderman, they thought it was great.

MCCLAIN: Yep. Well, yeah. Well, you and I came up with it.

HOOKER: I know.

MCCLAIN: They didn’t come up with the idea. You and I came up with it.

HOOKER: No, we came up with it but they thought it was great once they heard it.

MCCLAIN: Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, yep, yep.

(CLIP 2 END)

Read the original transcript of the conversation.