AT&T's involvement in Illinois politics takes focus in Mike Madigan corruption trial

CHICAGO (CN) — The federal corruption trial of ex-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan continued Wednesday as U.S. attorneys probed the extent of AT&T’s involvement with the state’s politics.

The government claims AT&T Illinois offered Democratic ex-state Representative Eddie Acevedo a do-nothing subcontractor gig worth $22,500 in April 2017, through a firm owned by lobbyist Tom Cullen — also a longtime Madigan ally and Democratic political operative.

Jurors on Wednesday saw that Cullen’s lobbying firm Cullen & Associates signed a contract with AT&T Illinois in January 2017, initially for $7,500 per month. AT&T amended the contract in April to pay Cullen & Associates an additional $2,500 per month for April through December.

Internal AT&T documents jurors saw stated the extra funds were meant to cover Cullen’s firm taking on “an additional asset.”

Prosecutors say that asset was Eddie Acevedo.

Acevedo served in the state House from 1997 to early 2017, and rubbed elbows with other Latino politicians in Illinois. At one point he served under Madigan as assistant House majority leader, and he also co-chaired the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus. Jurors have seen other evidence at trial that Madigan sought to stay on good terms with Latino state politicians as his own political home turf on Chicago’s South Side became increasingly Latino itself.

At the same time, AT&T was looking to get out of its Carrier of Last Resort, or COLR, obligations in Illinois. Those obligations compelled the company to provide landline service to certain Illinois customers who requested it, even as fewer and fewer households used landlines.

Nixing the obligation for AT&T would require a change to state law, and the company’s executives knew that meant getting through then-Speaker Madigan.

“In Illinois no bill can get through the legislature and to the Governor without the tacit approval of the all-powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan,” then-AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza told other AT&T insiders in a February 2017 email.

La Schiazza added that Madigan “rules the House with an iron fist.”

Other emails jurors saw Wednesday established that La Schiazza sought a way to get in Madigan’s good graces. Madigan’s co-defendant Mike McClain, another longtime close ally and veteran lobbyist, sent AT&T lobbyist Robert Barry one email on Valentine’s Day 2017 asking if there was “even a small contract for Eddie Acevedo.”

McClain contacted Barry despite retiring from lobbying in late 2016.

Federal prosecutors questioned three witnesses over the course of Wednesday regarding AT&T’s interactions with Acevedo, including AT&T legislative affairs staffer Barbara Galvin and FBI special agent Jennifer Avila. But the most prominent was Cullen himself, who took the stand under subpoena and under the assurances of a non-target letter from the government. He began his testimony shortly after lunch and stayed there the rest of the day.

Before getting into the meat of Cullen’s arrangement with AT&T and Acevedo, federal prosecutor Sarah Streicker established that his ties to Madigan and McClain ran deep.

Cullen testified he was already working with Madigan in the early 1990s and eventually become one of the speaker’s top political aides. Even after founding his own lobbying firm in 1999, he said he still had loyalty to the former speaker and his circle.

Cullen was one of several people in Madigan’s orbit who funneled several thousand dollars to former Madigan aide Kevin Quinn between 2018 and 2019. The speaker’s office fired Quinn, the brother of Chicago City Councilor Marty Quinn, in February 2018 amid sexual misconduct allegations. McClain gathered Cullen and several others to keep Quinn afloat while the situation cooled off.

“I was loyal to the operation,” Cullen said on the stand, when Streicker asked why he agreed to help Quinn. “I was loyal to Mike McClain.”

Jurors saw Wednesday that Cullen & Associates paid Quinn, as a consulting contractor, $1,000 a month between September 2018 and March 2019. The contract stipulated Quinn would provide Cullen & Associates with “Illinois non-political services” and “government services in the Chicagoland area” but Cullen said on the stand that he only gave Quinn “busy work.”

“Did you have any need for hiring Kevin Quinn?” Streicker asked at one point.

“Not really,” Cullen answered.

Cullen said he gave Acevedo similar “busy work” after his firm took the ex-state representative on as a contractor; namely, preparing a report on the Illinois Latino Legislative Caucus.

Despite this light work load, Cullen testified that Acevedo initially felt insulted by the $2,500 per month AT&T was offering.

“‘Fuck AT&T, they can kiss my ass,’” Cullen said Acevedo told him following an April 26, 2017, meeting. Acevedo purportedly tried to hold out for $3,000 per month, but ultimately agreed to the $2,500 monthly fee two days later.

Jurors saw La Schiazza had already signed the $22,500 contract amendment for Cullen & Associates on April 20. In an April 28, 2017 email, AT&T Illinois lobbyist Brian Gray told Cullen to pay Acevedo for the full month despite only securing the former legislator’s cooperation that day.

Acevedo himself is set to testify but will not take the stand until next week. Defense attorneys questioned his competency to testify, as the 61-year-old reportedly suffers from dementia. Judge John Robert Blakey spoke with Acevedo in chambers on Tuesday; the judge decided he would not quash the government subpoena against Acevedo on Wednesday morning before jurors arrived.

Acevedo left the courtroom Wednesday morning after hearing Blakey’s ruling, using a walker and accompanied by his attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti. Besides his involvement with AT&T, Acevedo is one of the multiple Madigan associates for whom the government says energy company ComEd arranged separate do-nothing subcontractor jobs.

Regardless of Acevedo’s actual contributions to Cullen’s firm or to AT&T, the Carrier of Last Resort reform bill the company backed passed both chambers of the Illinois Legislature on May 31, 2017. Then-Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, a Republican, vetoed it a month later, but state lawmakers overrode the veto on July 1.

That same month, Madigan’s son Andrew Madigan sent La Schiazza an email asking if AT&T would consider sponsoring an event in Chicago hosted by the nonprofit Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness.

“I’ve attached a sponsorship package for further review,” Andrew said in the July 12, 2017, email. “It would be great if AT&T could support this wonderful charity as a sponsor of the event.”

La Schiazza was less than enthused.

“Here we go … I’m sure this will be endless,” La Schiazza told Barry in a separate email the next day. “Yep, we are on the friends and family plan now.”

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