Federal prosecutors rejected Monday the idea that a “stunning” stream of benefits delivered to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan by four political power players in his final decade in office amounted to legal lobbying, goodwill or politics.

Instead, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur told jurors “it became so much, so that when Madigan said ‘jump,’ these defendants said ‘how high?’” 

Or, in the case of intern slots allegedly set aside by ComEd for people from Madigan’s ward, “How low should we go?”

MacArthur made her comments during closing arguments in the trial of four people accused of a decade-long conspiracy to bribe Madigan. The trial is in its final stage, and the case will likely be in jurors’ hands by Tuesday.

Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and onetime City Club President Jay Doherty are accused of arranging for jobs, contracts and money for Madigan allies in an illegal bid to sway Madigan as legislation crucial to ComEd moved through Springfield.

Before jurors decide the case, prosecutors and defense attorneys get one final chance to make their pitch. Jurors are expected to hear from defense attorneys Monday afternoon. But first they heard from MacArthur, who sought to walk jurors through the various elements of the case, and why she believed prosecutors have proven the four guilty. 

MacArthur explained that it’s not a traditional corruption case, in which cash bribes are passed through envelopes. 

“There isn’t an envelope big enough in this world to fit all the money that they made ComEd pay out,” she said. 

Rather, she alleged that secret recordings established how each of the defendants knowingly participated in the conspiracy. The feds have alleged that ComEd paid $1.3 million to five Madigan allies through various intermediaries, including a consulting firm owned by Doherty. The recipients of that money did little or no work for it, and MacArthur said the defendants knew it.

MacArthur said the system was conceived by McClain and Hooker, implemented by Doherty and adopted by Pramaggiore.

The prosecutor also showed jurors a pair of timelines. One reflected the passage of key bills that took ComEd from a “dire” financial position in the 2000s to record earnings in 2022. The other showed various benefits given to Madigan associates as part of the alleged scheme. 

The timelines showed that the alleged benefits tended to be delivered around the time legislation was passed.

MacArthur also alleged that an effort to appoint former McPier boss Juan Ochoa to ComEd’s board, begun in 2017, was a “reward given by Anne Pramaggiore to Madigan” for his help passing the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016.

MacArthur picked apart Pramaggiore’s testimony last week, arguing that recorded conversations and text messages show she was aware of the subcontractor agreement prior to 2019.

At one point in a February 2019 call with FBI cooperator Fidel Marquez, Pramaggiore can be heard saying “oh my God.” She testified that it was because she was “taken aback” by some of Marquez’s comments. 

“She said to you that the Feb. 18, 2019 conversation proves her innocence,” MacArthur said. “Members of the jury, that’s flat out wrong. That proves her guilt.” 

MacArthur told jurors that Pramaggiore, as a senior executive, could have put a stop to the sham subcontractor contracts, and offered that Pramaggiore showed “no shock in her voice” in the phone call. 

“She just does not want to rock that Springfield boat, to get that nose out of joint,” MacArthur said.