SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers on Thursday began investigating alleged misconduct by Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, that was outlined in a federal indictment.
Ammons pleaded not guilty on July 16 to 10 felony charges, including wire fraud, lying to the FBI and conspiring to obstruct justice. Her husband, Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, also faces a conspiracy charge. Their daughter, Titianna Ammons, was not charged in the case despite being a key figure at the center of it, though she is facing separate federal unemployment fraud charges.
Davidsmeyer said the GOP decided to focus on violations related to state tax dollars, believing issues surrounding campaign contributions and lying to federal agents could be explored another time.
“This committee is not a court of law, and we are not judging innocence or guilt,” Tarver said. “Rather, we are tasked with inquiring into the underlying facts to determine whether reasonable grounds exist for the discipline to be pursued by the House.”
Trust in the process
The committee is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, but chaired by Tarver, a Democrat.
“When one of our members is the subject of a criminal indictment based on allegations of a wire fraud, false statements to the FBI, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, there is a direct threat to the public trust in this very institution,” Tarver said.
The last committee to investigate a lawmaker, the 2020 investigation into Madigan more than a year before he would be federally charged, was criticized by members of both parties for different reasons. Then-Rep. Chris Welch, the Hillside Democrat who led that committee, said courts were a better place to determine wrongdoing. Republicans bashed that characterization and the Democrats’ decision to conclude the committee’s work without finding Madigan engaged in unethical behavior.
“The people of Illinois deserve answers, and above all, they deserve the truth,” Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, said. “This committee cannot become another Springfield exercise in delays, doublespeak excuses, and more political protections for insiders. Decades of scandal have destroyed the public’s trust in state government.”
“Sadly, these are not isolated political problems,” Bailey said. “In the last 25 years, more than 100 Democrats, ranging from governor, Congress, to legislators, aldermen, and county commissioners, have been indicted for crimes committed.”
He cited other Democrat politicians who’ve been indicted or convicted for “using their office for personal gain,” including Madigan, state Sens. Martin Sandoval and Terry Link, and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
“This is not just a culture of corruption that has been enabled through indifference. This is a systematic failure of leadership at the highest levels of government,” he said.
State lawmakers have passed a handful of ethics bills under Pritzker, including new requirements for various disclosures lobbyists and politicians must file and banning lawmakers from holding fundraisers while they’re in session. But no major ethics bills designed to prevent public corruption have advanced since 2021.
Peter Hancock contributed.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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