Rich Miller: Legislature needs to question its own inspector general

In the past week or so, three women have told stories about their dissatisfaction with the way they were treated by the state's Legislative Inspector General. And it's clear that at least three of the four legislative leaders are quickly becoming fed up with the LIG and that another leader may have trouble sustaining his claim that one of his members was cleared of wrongdoing. You may have seen the Chicago Tribune story about an unnamed female lobbyist who formally objected to the way she was treated by Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey during his sexual harassment probe of now-former Rep. Harry Benton. The lobbyist sent a letter to the four legislative leaders at the end of July claiming McCuskey had 'violated the confidence of other victims and me, broke standard investigative norms, and made inappropriate comments' to her. 'Specifically,' she wrote, McCuskey 'shared the names of the other victims and other confidential information about their cases with me without prompting, among other inappropriate statements and missteps.' The day after that story was published, my associate Isabel Miller reached out to Laura Jackson, who claimed she was sexually harassed by Rep. Amy 'Murri' Briel (D-Ottawa) and made other allegations, including how drugs were provided to campaign workers. Jackson worked on Briel's 2024 campaign and then served as Rep. Briel's deputy chief of staff. LIG McCuskey ruled that her allegations were 'unfounded' and Rep. Briel said the ruling proved everything Jackson said was false and the House Democrats began unapologetically ramping up support for Briel in her second race against Republican Liz Bishop. Jackson told Isabel that she, too, had experienced some of the same McCuskey behavior as the unnamed lobbyist. McCuskey, she said, 'shared other stories from other people and their experiences with (Briel).' Jackson also said McCuskey claimed Rep. Briel was 'crazy.' Asked about that, Jackson insisted that McCuskey 'verbatim called (Briel) 'crazy' and… was telling me about the things that they were saying on their side in the interviews but he definitely called her crazy to me.' Jackson said McCuskey's stories were 'very validating in a sense because it was like he was telling me, 'Here's all these other shared experiences, don't worry.'' 'I don't remember if he did tell me names (of other accusers),' Jackson said. 'He spoke about, I think it was like an environmental lobbyist group that had a lot of issues with her, and he told me about that. He shared with me about a story I had already known… about Briel yelling at one of Pritzker's staff openly and just like berating him openly, but I don't think he told me that staff's name.' We reached out to all four legislative leaders and showed them Ms. Jackson's quotes. Three responded. I asked Senate President Don Harmon's spokesperson whether the Briel LIG investigation should be revisited: 'Central to our ethics laws is that victims and witnesses know they will be treated with respect, confidentiality and professionalism in this process. We would encourage the Legislative Ethics Commission to take the appropriate steps to uphold those standards.' The Legislative Ethics Commission is empowered by state law to request further investigation of a case by the Legislative Inspector General. The commission, which is equally divided between the two parties, also has the power to request an investigation by the Illinois Attorney General. Asked the same question about whether the Briel LIG investigation should be revisited, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie's spokesperson issued a one-word response: 'Yes.' Senate Minority Leader John Curran also weighed in: 'Yes, the LEC should reopen the investigation and ensure that all appropriate steps were taken, including referring any criminal activity to the appropriate law enforcement agency.' House Speaker Chris Welch's office did not respond to a request for comment. As a matter of policy, the LIG does not respond to news media inquiries about specific details of cases. And then yet another woman who filed a detailed sexual harassment complaint against a different House Democrat a few years ago sent us a statement corroborating many of the complaints against Legislative Inspector General McCuskey, who also deemed her allegations 'unfounded.' 'His treatment of victims is unacceptable,' she wrote. 'The LIG kept telling me he was a federal judge, and that I made him look incompetent and questioned his integrity of investigating… If someone really comes forward with a serious sexual assault or a big case, nobody should have to talk to him.' The legislature needs to get to the bottom of this. Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.