“At last week’s meeting of the Special Investigating Committee, a motion to subpoena key witnesses was ruled out of order by Chairman Welch, and no vote of the committee was taken. After the meeting, we sent copies of the requested subpoenas to Chairman Welch for his review. Still now, a week later, he has not responded nor issued any subpoenas.
Instead, Chairman Welch sent a letter to ComEd requesting a data dump of all communications in the last decade between ComEd or Exelon and any staff member, employee, contractor, or consultant of Governors Quinn, Rauner, and Pritzker, Senate Presidents Cullerton and Harmon, Senate Minority Leaders Radogno and Brady, House Minority Leaders Cross and Durkin, and Speaker Madigan—only one of whom is actually identified in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement. This request involves hundreds of people and could take months for ComEd to respond.
In contrast, I requested from ComEd documents directly related to the DPA—documents they acknowledged during testimony in last week’s meeting. Since the Special Investigating Committee was created by a petition with a specific charge about Speaker Madigan, and with direct references to the DPA, I believe it is appropriate for the committee to call witnesses and request documents that are relevant to the committee’s charge.”