* Subscribers were told a lot more about this case earlier today, but here’s my weekly syndicated newspaper column from August 21st, while we were on break…

Yet another sexual harassment allegation has been made against an Illinois House Democrat. But this time, the House speaker’s operation is fully supporting its incumbent.

Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel’s former deputy chief of staff Laura Jackson claims that, among other things, Briel, D-Ottawa, sexually harassed her, supplied her and the campaign staff with “unlimited” amounts of Adderall and gave “bonuses in marijuana.” Jackson said she ultimately had a three-hour meeting with the Legislative Inspector General.

Before we go any further, you should know that Jackson made her claims in a 44-minute video released by Linc Strategy, a Republican consulting group that has worked for Briel’s Republican general election opponent Liz Bishop. The interview was conducted by Marjorie Kline of Wilson Grand Communications, a national Republican advertising agency.

A district office employee in former Rep. Harry Benton’s office claimed she resigned after repeated sexual harassment by Benton, D-Plainfield, in the spring of 2023. His ultimate resignation this summer set off a firestorm of criticism against House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch for waiting so long to do anything, which has metastasized into criticism of Welch’s service as House speaker.

Ironically, a Benton staffer reached out to Benton’s Republican opponent around the time of her fellow staffer’s resignation, saying via text that Benton “needs to go.” A meeting never took place, however, and that staffer, Jessica Dixon Heitman, eventually replaced Benton in the House.

According to Jackson, “Rep. Briel almost daily told me that I needed to take an older woman lover,” telling the Republican consultant Kline it was “difficult to focus on tasks while knowing that my boss has these feelings that she’s openly sharing.”

“It was probably every day that I talked to her there was something about me that was sexualized, to the point that on the night of inauguration, I stood in front of her with tears in my eyes and said that I wish that she would see me as something more than just my looks, than just physically,” Jackson said during the GOP interview.

“During the campaign, there was a lot of extreme Adderall use,” Jackson claimed in the Republican video. “I take accountability on my part for taking it, but there was also a supply of unlimited Adderall to keep us going through that campaign,” she told Kline, referencing Briel’s first Illinois House campaign in 2024.

Briel won by a slim margin of just 595 votes in 2024. Jackson told Kline that the Adderall kept coming while votes were being counted. “After that, Rep. Briel never gave me another Adderall at all, which made it very difficult for me because, yes, I was partaking.”

Jackson also claimed that Briel “would give bonuses in marijuana, up to two ounces that she would drive back from Michigan.”

Briel released a statement a day later claiming these were all disproven allegations.

“The statements in the video produced by her MAGA political operatives were previously taken to the Legislative Inspector General in 2025 and were found to be without merit. I am calling for the immediate release of the Legislative Inspector General’s report on this matter,” Briel said.

Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey told the Sun-Times last week that he deemed Jackson’s complaint unfounded a month after she filed it in April of last year.

Jackson has a different version of events. “[The Legislative Inspector General office] just told me that I was an at-will employee and that there wasn’t really anything that they could do for me,” she told my colleague Isabel Miller last week, adding, “I was never told that anything was unfounded or anything like that. I was just told the at-will employee part.”

The “unfounded” declaration gives the House Democrats license to move full speed ahead. The Sun-Times quoted the executive director of the House Democrats’ political operation as saying, “We will not allow a misleading political attack to distort Rep. Briel’s record or diminish our commitment to the values she has consistently fought for.”

However, the Bishop’s campaign spokesperson Steven Shearer made it clear that the Legislative Inspector General’s decision will not be accepted as the final say. “It should not be up to one man to be the cross-examiner, the judge, the jury,” Shearer said. “We’re going to let the voters be the jury on this, and they can decide how credible it is that Rep. Briel hired her twice, hired her on her campaign and then hired her as the chief of staff in her legislative office.”

If the House Republicans can raise the money, this could be one of the hottest legislative races of the fall campaign.

* Meanwhile, from the Tribune…

When Illinois Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey last month released his report substantiating sexual harassment allegations against former state Rep. Harry Benton, one of the victims listed in the report — a female lobbyist — issued a statement accusing McCuskey of inaccurately characterizing her side of the story.

McCuskey, 78, a former longtime state and federal judge, denied there were any inaccuracies and said, “My judgments have never been attacked by an individual doubting my credibility!”

But the lobbyist has doubled down on her criticism of McCuskey in a recent letter to Illinois’ four top legislative leaders and obtained by the Tribune. In the four-page letter, the lobbyist says McCuskey “violated the confidence of other victims and me, broke standard investigative norms, and made inappropriate comments” to her during their interview and in other interactions with her about her allegations against Benton.

“Specifically, he 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 lobbyist wrote to Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon and Senate Republican Leader John Curran. The Tribune is not identifying the female lobbyist because she is a victim of sexual harassment.

Click here for the full letter.