Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on July 21, 2025, after being sentenced to two years in prison. | Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune
By Jason Meisner | Chicago Tribune
A Chicago federal appeals court on Monday said there was “compelling” evidence against former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and lobbyist Michael McClain in the “ComEd Four” case and that prosecutors were free to retry it if they saw fit.
The highly anticipated 16-page opinion comes two months after the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the convictions of Pramaggiore and McClain in a scheme to influence then-House Speaker Michael Madigan and ordered them released immediately from federal prison.
As expected, the three-judge panel made it official Monday that the convictions for both could not stand given recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court curtailing the use of federal statutes involving bribery and making false statements.
But the opinion also was clear the government had presented “significant and compelling evidence” in the case, and rejected arguments from the petitioners that they should be acquitted outright.
“Do not misread our opinion,” the judges said at the conclusion of the ruling. “We are not suggesting that Pramaggiore and McClain are innocent, only that their convictions were flawed and that they have a right to see their sentences vacated.”
The opinion puts the ball squarely in the court of the U.S. attorney’s office, which will have a tough decision to make. A retrial is possible, though it would have to be under different legal theories, or potentially a new indictment that could vastly change the scope of the evidence, legal observers have said.
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