* The Illinois Legislative Ethics Commission…

This morning, the members of the Illinois General Assembly’s bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission (LEC) voted unanimously to publish the report concerning the complaint against former State Representative Harry Benton (D).

Following the vote, Commission Chair State Representative Jeff Keicher released the following statement:

“After considering the matter before us for case number 26-005 concerning the complaint against former Rep. Harry Benton, we voted to publish the report pursuant to our statutory obligations. To protect the privacy of those involved in this case, the respondent and complainant will be given the opportunity to review the report for potential redactions, which the Commission will review.”

As Keicher stated, now that the LEC has voted to make the report public, the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act requires the respondent and complainant to be permitted to review the report, offer redaction suggestions, and provide a response to be published with the report, if they wish. The LEC intends to have this process completed by July 31st.

…Adding… House Minority Leader Tony McCombie…

After the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission (LEC) voted unanimously to release a report detailing the sexual harassment complaint regarding former State Representative Harry Benton, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie issued the following statement:

“Thank you to the members of the Legislative Ethics Commission for doing the right thing: transparency is key for us to move forward, understand how we can improve, and to demand accountability for those who failed to uphold the integrity of our chamber. Unfortunately, we may never know what happened before this report due to the silence of leaders who have repeatedly chosen politics over principles.”