South Central Reporter

GOP activist James Jones is slamming Attorney General Kwame Raoul for not investigating alleged wrongdoing on behalf of a politically connected state employee. 

“Raoul will investigate this when pigs fly, he’s not interested in the least on this,” Jones told South Central Reporter. “This is only one reason why I support Tom DeVore. The main reason that I support DeVore is there isn’t a D behind his name.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Raoul are being pushed to respond to questions from DeVore – the GOP nominee for Illinois attorney general – surrounding the Jenny Thornley workers' compensation fraud issue. This fall, a trial for Thornley is scheduled in Sangamon County on charges of forgery, theft and governmental misconduct. Raoul asked the court to dismiss the litigation that the merit board had filed in an effort to expose the conspiracy. The judge agreed, and it was dismissed. 

“Why did they pay her the money after we had already proven that she was not sexually assaulted?” DeVore asked, bringing light to this scandal and hoping others in the media will as well.

DeVore is bringing attention to fraud involving the governor’s office. Thornley, a former Pritzker campaign aide and Illinois State Police Merit Board employee, was accused of stealing money from the state. 

Pritzker’s General Counsel Ann Spillane directly handled and approved the fraudulent claim. An independent investigation concluded that the claim was just a scheme to defraud the state. People at the highest levels of the Pritzker administration were involved in the scheme, and Raoul had information regarding the matter but refused to act. DeVore promised to fight corruption such as this if he is elected. 

Illinois taxpayers footed the bill for a $550,000 independent investigation that cleared a state supervisor from a sexual harassment claim from a state employee. Thornley collected a workers’ compensation claim for physical and emotional damage but the investigation found no such harassment ever took place. Thornley’s agency never knew about the claim until after it was getting paid out, and the Pritzker administration pushed it through without the agency knowing. 

Merit Board Executive Director Jack Garcia caught wind of the allegations. Thornley then accused Garcia of the aforementioned harassment. She then threatened to use her political connections to get her out of trouble to the point of even texting the governor’s wife in February 2020. She listed Pritzker as her supervisor although she never worked in his office when she later filed a workers’ compensation claim. Spillane processed the claim, despite knowing it was fraudulent. She was fired in July 2020 and incited by a grand jury in Springfield in September 2021 for salary and expense padding. The governor's office knew this was a fraudulent claim, but it secretly pushed it through anyway. To make matters worse, Raoul successfully got a whistleblower claim dismissed, which means he is doing nothing to hold anyone accountable, Wirepoints reported. DeVore is one of the only politicians bringing attention to this scandal involving the governor’s office.