Beecher City, IL-(Effingham Radio)-At a capitol news conference Thursday morning, several House Republican members discussed the progress made on ethics reform due to the work by Northern District United States Attorney, John Lausch, and the continued need for reforms in the Illinois General Assembly.
Lausch announced last week he will leave office March 11 after more than five years leading the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Since he was sworn into office in November 2017, Lausch has overseen numerous high-profile investigations in Chicago, among them, the indictments of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on racketeering and bribery charges and longtime Chicago Ald. Ed. Burke.
House Republicans praised Lausch for his work but said there is much more to be done in the state when it comes to ethics reform in Illinois.
State Representative Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) pointed to numerous pieces of ethics legislation filed by House Republican members that Democrats are holding back from being heard in the House. Attached are his comments.
It was also brought up in the press conference that the Illinois Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the no-cash bail case on March 14. This comes just after it was brought out in the news that Governor Pritzker, who signed that Safe T Act into law, was the top donor for two Supreme Court justices campaigns, donating a total of $2 million dollars to then candidates Mary K. O’Brien and Elizabeth Rochford each. The governor signed a law in 2022 that capped contribution limits in such campaigns to $500,000 from “any single person.” Despite that, to each candidate, half a million came from each of Pritzker’s political campaign and his revocable trust.
It’s unclear if O’Brien and Rochford will recuse themselves in the case or in the gun ban case also going before the court in which Pritzker is the top defendant. Wilhour also talked about this situation.
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