How Corrupt Is Illinois?

Don Tracy, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, has a piece describing yet more fishy goings-on in Springfield in RealClearPolitics:

The outside counsel, Christina Egan, nonetheless completed an investigation by July 2020 (at the cost of $500,000 paid by the people of Illinois), confirming the evidence Garcia assembled that Thornley had stolen money and committed forgery, and finding no evidence of Thornley’s sexual assault allegation. The State Police Merit Board then reinstated Garcia, fired Thornley, referred her for prosecution. She has now been indicted for theft and forgery.

However, after Thornley was fired, someone with clout in the Pritzker administration somehow granted her disability payments reserved for people that are actually state employees. These payments (amounting to some $71,000) went on for more than a year, ending days before she was indicted for theft and fraud. These extensive payments were for “injuries” sustained from an “assault” that Egan determined had not occurred.

From the Tribune: “The merit board unsuccessfully called on the executive inspector general to investigate Thornley’s workers’ comp claim and then turned to anti-fraud investigators at the Illinois Department of Insurance. Brad Lucchini, assistant deputy director of the agency’s fraud unit, called the Thornley matter a ‘clear case of fraud,’ according to a July 27 memo to Garcia written by Emily Fox, the merit board’s program director.” But, apparently the investigators did nothing.

Indeed, no one did anything about Thornley’s disability payments until days before another agency (outside the Pritzker Administration’s control) indicted her in September 2021.

continuing by asking four questions:

1) Who effectuated Thornley’s enrollment in the disability program over the objections of the merit board — and on whose orders did that person or persons act?

2) Why did the inspector general refuse to look into this blatant abuse? What role has the attorney general played — what were his or his staff’s communications with the governor and his staff?

3) What did the governor, Mrs. Pritzker and their staff do, and when did they do it, to help Jenny Thornley? Did they continue to protect her even after Egan’s independent investigation affirmed the evidence of her theft and forgery?

4) What did the administration know about the evidence assembled by Garcia that has led to Thornley’s indictment before it intervened on her behalf over Super Bowl weekend in 2020? Was any of this information considered, along with the timing of the claim, before intervening to stop her from being fired and being immediately referred for prosecution?

The election for Illinois governor will take place on November 8 of this year. We are already being deluged with campaign ads, not just by Gov. Pritzker but by several of his opponents. The primary election will take place on June 28. That will undoubtedly decide who will be elected on November 8. I have no intention of voting for Gov. Pritzker, either in the primary or, if he prevails, in the general election. I do not think he has been an effective governor, I dislike his disdain for the rule of law, and I find his routinely referring to “they” when talking about who has screwed Illinois up remarkably disingenuous.