* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 28, 2019, for attempting to bribe a state senator. House Speaker Michael Madigan, who was under investigation himself, called on Arroyo to resign that same day.

The next day, Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, was one of three House Democrats who signed a petition to automatically trigger the creation of a Special Investigating Committee. Welch and the two others included the sworn federal criminal complaint against Arroyo as evidence.

Arroyo announced his resignation just hours before the first investigating committee hearing. He was later sentenced to almost five years.

On Feb. 25 of this year, now Illinois House Speaker Welch, without an announcement, kicked Rep. Harry Benton, D-Plainfield, out of the House Democratic caucus and stripped him of his committee assignments and House staff support.

In April, my colleague Isabel Miller asked Welch if Benton should resign, but he wouldn’t respond. On July 1, Welch announced that he’d received an inspector general’s report and demanded that Benton resign, which Benton did two days later.

And that brings us to Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, who was indicted last week by the feds on multiple charges, including paying her daughter more than $15,000 from her campaign fund disguised as a payment to what appears to be a nonexisting consultant, and then allegedly receiving kickbacks.

Ammons is also accused of killing an appropriation for the Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center and in its place arranging more than $650,000 in the fiscal year 2020 budget for Hood Vote for Neighborhood Transformation — and then her daughter was paid out of that appropriation. Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration figured out what was going on and told Ammons and the group that this was an impermissible conflict of interest. Ammons’ daughter left the payroll.

The next year, Ammons allegedly inserted a $612,000 grant to Bridgewater-Sullivan Community Life Center into the state budget. Ammons allegedly then assisted the group in drafting the contract to hire her daughter, and allegedly received kickbacks. That same daughter was also paid about $10,000 by the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, which Ammons helped with budgetary member initiatives totaling $700,000 in fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022.

The feds allege that, in total, Ammons and her daughter received benefits “in excess of $100,000.” The government allegedly has multiple text messages that implicate Ammons. She’s also accused of lying to the FBI when she said she had no knowledge of any conflict of interest with the Hood Vote group.

Welch told reporters last week that he wouldn’t call for Ammons’ resignation because she has the right to due process. I asked a day later how a still-secret legislative inspector general report would qualify as due process for Benton and a public federal grand jury indictment does not for Ammons. I was told by a Welch spokesperson that the speaker considers the federal indictment akin to Welch’s own referral to the legislative inspector general. And then the adjudication happened during the legislative inspector general’s investigation and report. Seems a bit of a stretch.

Welch told reporters he’d consider a special investigating committee to be “due process” if members demanded it.

The special investigation committee can ultimately lead to a House floor vote to expel Ammons.

However, Welch also told reporters, “I think the courts is the proper place for this. They have the tools available to them, and it’s the proper place.”

Welch had basically the same response when he chaired the special investigative committee looking into Madigan’s operation. But, unlike Ammons, Madigan had not yet been indicted.

Also, the House voted to expel Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, after his arrest and before his federal bribery trial. And Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office before his federal trial. The argument doesn’t really hold water.
Trick bag

On Friday, Republicans filed paperwork to initiate the investigating committee. Welch appointed members to it that same day.

And that, finally, brings us to President Donald Trump. We’ve seen serious problems at the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago the past several months, and in my opinion, believable allegations have been made of politically motivated prosecutions.

The Ammons indictment was filed by the Central District of Illinois. I’ve seen nothing yet, which indicates that office is having the same problems as the Northern District.

But an argument will likely be made that this is yet another politically motivated Trump-era indictment and people should wait, particularly after what happened to Sen. Emil Jones, III, D-Chicago. The splashy federal bribery case against him completely fell apart at trial. Lots of folks, from Pritzker on down, had demanded Jones resign when the indictment was issued.

It also didn’t help matters that, like with the Madigan probe, only House Republicans signed the petition to initiate action against Ammons. It can be portrayed as partisan.

Ammons says she’s innocent. I doubt she’ll resign. So, Welch is in a bit of a trick bag.

Also, as a reminder, the Illinois constitution prohibits a member from being kicked out twice for the same offense. That’s why Rep. Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) was able to return to the Statehouse after he first given the boot and then was elected by the voters (an attempt to run an independent candidate failed).

So, the charges may have to be narrowed or people can hope that the feds file a superceding indictment.

* Anyway, I’m all ears on what your thoughts are on how this sort of thing can be prevented.