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Rich Miller: Ammons indictment puts all eyes on Welch · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Rich Miller. Amman's indictment puts all eyes on Welch. Written
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  Speaker 1: by Rich Miller. This article is being read by an
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  Speaker 1: automated voice brought to you by Everlett. State Representative Luis
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  Speaker 1: Arroyo D. Chicago was arrested by the FBI on October
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight, twenty nineteen, for attempting to bribe a state senator.
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  Speaker 1: House Speaker Michael Madigan, who was himself under investigation, called
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  Speaker 1: on Arroyo to resign that same day. The next day,
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  Speaker 1: State Representative Chris Welch D. Hillside was one of three
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  Speaker 1: House Democrats who signed a petition to trigger the creation
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  Speaker 1: of a special investigating committee. Automatically. Welch and the two
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  Speaker 1: others included the sworn federal criminal complaint against Arroyo as evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Arroyo announced his resignation just hours before the first investigating
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  Speaker 1: committee hearing. He was later sentenced to almost five years.
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  Speaker 1: On February twenty fifth of this year, Welch, without an announcement,
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  Speaker 1: kicked State Representative Harry Benton D. Plainfield out of the
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  Speaker 1: House Democratic Caucus and stripped him of his committee assignments
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  Speaker 1: and House staff support. In April, my colleague Isabelle Miller
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  Speaker 1: asked Welch if Benton should resign, but he wouldn't respond.
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  Speaker 1: On July first, Welch announced that he'd received an Inspector
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  Speaker 1: General's report and demanded that Benton resign, which Benton did
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  Speaker 1: two days later. And that brings us to state Representative
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  Speaker 1: Carol Ammons de Urbana, who was indicted last week by
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  Speaker 1: the FEDS on multiple charges, including paying her daughter more
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  Speaker 1: than fifteen thousand dollars from her campaign fund disguised as
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  Speaker 1: a payment to what appears to be a non existent consultant,
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  Speaker 1: and then allegedly receiving kickbacks. Ammons also is accused of
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  Speaker 1: killing an appropriation for the Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center and
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  Speaker 1: in its place, arranging more than six hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars in the fiscal twenty twenty budget for hood
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  Speaker 1: vote for neighborhood transformation, and then her daughter was paid
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  Speaker 1: out of that appropriation. Governor J. B. Pritzker's administration figured
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  Speaker 1: out what was going on and told Ammins and the
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  Speaker 1: group that this was an impermissible conflict of interest. Ammon's
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  Speaker 1: daughter left the payroll. The next year, Ammons allegedly inserted
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  Speaker 1: a six hundred and twelve thousand dollars grant to Bridgewater
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  Speaker 1: Sullivan Community Life Center into the state budget. Ammons allegedly
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  Speaker 1: then assisted the group in drafting the contract to hire
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  Speaker 1: her daughter and allegedly received kickbacks. That same daughter was
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  Speaker 1: also paid about ten thousand dollars by the Urbanis Champagne
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  Speaker 1: Independent Media Center, which Ammins helped with budgetary member initiatives,
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  Speaker 1: totaling seven hundred dollars zero zero in fiscal twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: one and fiscal twenty twenty two. The FEDS alleged that
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  Speaker 1: in total, Ammins and her daughter received benefits in excess
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  Speaker 1: of one hundred thousand dollars. The g allegedly has multiple
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  Speaker 1: text messages that implicate Representative Ammins. She's also accused of
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  Speaker 1: lying to the FBI when she said she had no
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of any conflict of interest with the Hood Vote Group.
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  Speaker 1: Speaker Welsh told reporters last week that he wouldn't call
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  Speaker 1: for Representative Amman's resignation because she has the right to
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  Speaker 1: do process. I asked a day later how a still
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  Speaker 1: secret Legislative Inspector General report would qualify as due process
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  Speaker 1: for Benton and a public federal grand jury indictment does
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  Speaker 1: not for Ammins. I was told by a Welsh spokesperson
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  Speaker 1: that the Speaker considers the federal indictment akin to Welch's
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  Speaker 1: own referral to the LIG, and then the adjudication happened
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  Speaker 1: during the lig's investigation and report seems a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a stretch. Speaker Welsh told reporters he'd consider a special
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  Speaker 1: investigating committee to be due process if members demanded it.
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  Speaker 1: The special Investigation Committee can ultimately lead to a House
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  Speaker 1: floor vote to expel Ammins. However, Welsch also told reporters,
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  Speaker 1: I think the courts is the proper place for this.
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  Speaker 1: They have the tools available to them, and it's the
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  Speaker 1: proper place. Welch had basically the same response when he
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  Speaker 1: chaired the Special Investigative Committee looking into Speaker Madigan's operation,
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  Speaker 1: but unlike Ammons, Madigan had not yet been indicted. Also,
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  Speaker 1: the House voted to expel State Representative Derrick Smith the
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  Speaker 1: Chicago after his arrest and before his federal bribery trial,
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  Speaker 1: and Governor Rod Blogesevich was impeached and removed from office
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  Speaker 1: before his federal trial. The argument doesn't really hold water
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  Speaker 1: on Friday Republicans filed paperwork to initiate the investigating committee.
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  Speaker 1: Welch appointed members to it that same day, and that
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  Speaker 1: finally brings us to President Donald Trump. We've seen serious
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  Speaker 1: problems at the US Attorney's office in Chicago the past
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  Speaker 1: several months, and in my opinion, believable allegations have been
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  Speaker 1: made of politically motivated prosecutions. The Ammans indictment was filed
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  Speaker 1: by the Central District of Illinois. I've seen nothing yet
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  Speaker 1: indicating that AF is having the same problems as the
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  Speaker 1: Northern District, but an argument will likely be made that
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  Speaker 1: this is yet another politically motivated Trump era indictment and
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  Speaker 1: people should wait, particularly after what happened to State Senator
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  Speaker 1: Emil Jones, third D Chicago. The splashy federal bribery case
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  Speaker 1: against him completely fell apart at trial. Lots of folks
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  Speaker 1: from Pritzker on down had demanded Jones resign when the
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  Speaker 1: indictment was issued. It also didn't help matters that, like
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  Speaker 1: with the Madigan probe, only House Republicans signed the petition
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  Speaker 1: to initiate action against Ammon's it can be portrayed as partisan.
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  Speaker 1: Ammon says she's innocent. I doubt she'll resign, so speaker
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  Speaker 1: Welch is in a bit of a trick bag. Rich
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  Speaker 1: Miller also publishes Capital Facts, a daily political newsletter, and
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  Speaker 1: capitolffacts dot com.