CHICAGO — A onetime top political aide to House Speaker Michael Madigan testified Friday that passing legislation to end mandated landline service was AT&T Illinois’ top priority in 2017 when they came to him with a plan to secretly pay a Madigan ally through his lobbying firm.

Tom Cullen, a lobbyist who played political point man for years on Madigan’s government staff, is a key witness in the trial of Paul La Schiazza, not only because he was the alleged go-between for the illicit payments to ex-state Rep. Eddie Acevedo, but also because of his intricate knowledge of Madigan’s operation.

Prosecutors allege that AT&T agreed to pay $2,500 a month to Acevedo as a do-nothing “consultant” to win Madigan’s support for its legislation, known by the acronym COLR, which stood to save the company millions of dollars. The arrangement was proposed by Michael McClain, a former lobbyist and longtime confidant of Madigan’s, according to prosecutors.

Dressed in a gray suit, Cullen, of Springfield, told the jury that he received through his attorney a “non-target letter” from the U.S. attorney’s office in exchange for his testimony, meaning the government acknowledged there was not “substantial proof” he had done something wrong.

He testified that Madigan was all-powerful in Springfield, and that the speaker’s support was critical for passage of AT&T’s bill.

“It was terribly important because the speaker controls the flow of legislation in the House and the speaker was influential on whether a bill could pass or fail,” Cullen said.

Cullen said Madigan viewed Eddie Acevedo as “a loyal member but not, you know, a serious member” of the House. But Madigan knew Acevedo could be “helpful” in building support with the Latino legislative caucus as Madigan’s district became more and more Hispanic, Cullen testified.

He also said McClain was the only contract lobbyist in Springfield to have direct access to Speaker Madigan, Cullen said. And everyone knew it.

“I could go to McClain and say ‘I have a situation, can you relay that to the speaker?” Cullen said.

Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Mower if he had any reservations about the unusual arrangement with Acevedo, Cullen said “somewhat.”

“But I think that I would rather have been a team player than not a team player,” Cullen testified.

The Tribune first reported in 2022 that Cullen had testified before the federal grand jury that was looking into broad aspects of Madigan’s political world, which prosecutors allege included a criminal enterprise aimed at providing personal financial rewards for Madigan and his associates.

Cullen’s previously testified in the perjury trial of Tim Mapes, the speaker’s longtime chief of staff, but he was not a witness in the related “ComEd Four” bribery conspiracy case.

His name did surface repeatedly in the ComEd Four case, however, including on a now-infamous “magic” list of Madigan-favored lobbyists curated by McClain on hotel stationery.

His testimony in La Schiazza’s case has been highly anticipated and could prove controversial, as La Schiazza’s defense team said Friday they want to cross-examine him about his understanding of what they were doing was illegal — a point the prosecution says is irrelevant.

For decades, Tom Cullen was one of the Madigan machine’s key engineers, holding a position of high confidence in a small group of Madigan’s confidants, whose members one longtime political insider told the Tribune is so closely guarded that only the “people in the circle know who the people in the circle are.”

Cullen held the all-important position of director of Madigan’s House issues development staff, the political arm of the speaker’s government operations. In that role, Cullen became essential in screening and recruiting legislative candidates as well as determining their paths to victory.

When the speaker’s daughter Lisa Madigan ran for attorney general, Cullen was among the small cadre of people, including McClain, who met frequently to help steer her successful statewide race.

La Schiazza, 66, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in October 2022 with conspiracy, federal program bribery and using a facility in interstate commerce to promote unlawful activity. The most serious counts carry up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty and been free on bond while his case is pending.

La Schiazza’s attorneys have argued that by paying Acevedo, AT&T was simply engaging in the kind of relationship building that is necessary in politics, especially when a company is trying to get lawmakers to consider its agenda. The company also had political reasons to try to keep the payments quiet, according to the defense.

The trial, which is expected to last up to four weeks, is offering a sneak peek at some of the evidence that will be presented at the racketeering trial of Madigan and McClain, which kicks off next month.

Before Cullen takes the stand, the jury finished hearing testimony from Stephen Selcke, who worked for years as one of AT&T’s top internal lobbyists and was part of the process of hiring Acevedo.

The U.S. attorney’s office granted immunity to Selcke in 2022, compelling him to testify against his friend but also shielding him from any criminal prosecution as long as he tells the truth.

Selcke testified Thursday that no one at AT&T wanted to directly hire Acevedo, who had reputation for heavy drinking and belligerent behavior in Springfield. But Acevedo was a longtime ally of the speaker’s, so when McClain reached out and asked that they find some money for a “small contract” for Acevedo, they jumped, Selcke said.

“Speaker Madigan was the most powerful member of the Illinois House, pretty much controlled the legislature in the House…so obviously we didn’t want to rock the boat with Speaker Madigan and create any kind of impediment to our legislation,” Selcke told the jury Friday.

He also testified that they all understood McClain’s request had come directly from the speaker.

Two days after McClain’s original overture, La Schiazza emailed the group to say he’d also heard directly from McClain.

“The speaker has assigned our bill to him as a ‘Special Project,’” La Schiazza wrote on Feb. 16, 2017, according to a copy of the email shown in court. “Mike wants to meet with me which I will do. … I will send him a summary of our bill. I told him I would also make my staff available to him for detail if necessary.”

He ended the email with the words, “Game on.”

In late March, however, after learning from McClain that the hiring of Acevedo still had not gone forward, La Schiazza emailed the team again. “Got a call. … Do we have $ set aside for a small contract for Eddie Acevedo? … Let me know,” he said. “Somehow I thought we had this in progress?”

After Selcke and others expressed worries about hiring Acevedo as a direct lobbyist, which would require him to register with the state, a plan was discussed to “direct Eddie’s efforts” through Cullen.

La Schiazza emailed back: “If you guys really believe it will be harmful to contract with (Acevedo) directly, I have no objection to that plan, as long as you are sure we will get credit and the box checked, and of course we have legal approval to engage Eddie in this way.”

According to prosecutors, Cullen later attended a meeting with AT&T employees and Acevedo to discuss a cover story for the payments: to “prepare a report on the political dynamics of the General Assembly’s and Chicago City Council’s Latino Caucuses.”

Acevedo balked at first, saying the payments were too low. But he agreed to the deal after McClain stepped in and said the amount was “sufficient.”

From June 2017 to January 2018, AT&T made nine monthly payments of $10,000 to Cullen’s firm, with $2,500 from each installment earmarked for Acevedo, for a total of $22,500. The report was never done and Acevedo did no other work on AT&T’s behalf, prosecutors alleged.

Meanwhile, after a protracted fight, the landline bill passed during the final hours of the spring 2017 legislative session — with Madigan’s direct assistance, according to legislative records presented in court Thursday. The House later overrode a veto by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner — on a vote that Madigan got to the House floor.

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