Tammy Duckworth’s time under disgraced Governor Blagojevich is coming back to haunt her. Duckworth needs to answer questions about her involvement in retaliating against whistleblowers.
With the trial date set and Duckworth avoiding questions, it makes you wonder what more she has to hide.
A trial date has been set in a whistle-blower lawsuit involving U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth.
In a case dating to her tenure as a member of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration, the Democrat from Hoffman Estates is alleged to have retaliated against two employees of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
After six years of legal wrangling, a Union County judge on June 2 scheduled a bench trial for April 4, 2016. A pre-trial hearing is set for Aug. 4 at the courthouse in Jonesboro. […]
Allegations outlined in a September 2009 amended complaint say Duckworth, who headed the agency from December 2006 to 2009, violated state ethics rules and inflicted emotional distress on two employees of the Anna Veterans’ Home.
* From the Illinois Republican Party…
On June 2nd, a Union County Judge set the trial date for Rep. Duckworth who is facing charges filed by employees of the Anna Veteran’s Home in Union County for state ethics violations stemming from Duckworth’s attempts to silence reports of wrongdoing and abuse of veterans by caretakers.
According to the suit and documents filed in Union County Court, after firing one of the whistleblowers, Duckworth told the other whistleblower:
“If you do your job and keep your mouth shut and concentrate on job duties, you will keep your job”
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2009, alleges that Duckworth wrongfully terminated one employee and threatened and intimidated another employee for bringing reports of abuse and misconduct of veterans when she was head of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The brave women who tried to call attention to problems within the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs should have been commended for their actions. Instead, Tammy Duckworth intimidated them, ordered one woman to ‘keep her mouth shut’ and attempted to fire another. These allegations of outrageous misconduct against Congresswoman Duckworth are extremely troubling. It is time for the Congresswoman to explain her actions and send a clear message that acts of retribution against whistleblowers in government will not be tolerated,” said Nick Klitzing, Executive Director of the Illinois Republican Party.
The Republican Party taking the side of state bureaucrats is pretty rich. And the initial “whistleblowing” was about some yelling and a few accusations from a supervisor who made it clear she wanted to get rid of one of the plaintiffs before the plaintiffs actually blew the whistle. Go read the complaint yourself, with the link helpfully supplied by the ILGOP.
Either way, the headlines probably ain’t gonna be good for Duckworth’s US Senate campaign.
*** UPDATE *** It is, however, a bit odd that Duckworth denied the existence of this suit in her 2012 race against Joe Walsh…
Transcript…
Well, first and foremost that’s not true and you continue to say things repeatedly that are not true and you think if you say them over and over again thinking they would be true and they’re not. This is what Mr. Walsh does he tries to distract people from the issue at hand
NBC Chicago has learned Turnaround Illinois, the independent expenditure committee formed in April to “support state legislative candidates who support Gov. Rauner’s bold and needed reforms and to oppose those who stand in the way,” is on the cusp of making its first ad buy in the Chicago television market reportedly for an estimated $450,000.
When asked about this, the governor’s office had no comment. But according to sources who track such transactions, the ad buy is currently set to run from June 16 through June 22.
Local television stations were told Friday to expect orders to arrive Monday morning for commercials to begin airing on Tuesday.
