(The Center Square) – A member of the recently created Illinois House Special Investigating Committee to look at federal charges brought against a Democratic state legislator says taxpayers should pay attention.
State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, and her husband, Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, have pleaded not guilty to federal charges. They’ve surrendered their passports.
As that federal case continues in the courts, state Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterch, said the House Special Investigating Committee will look into the charges.
“It’s very important because we have a culture of corruption that’s been going on for many, many years here in Illinois,” Niemerg told The States by The Center Square.
Niemerg said among the committee’s first actions will be to approve a letter asking the U.S. Attorney’s Office to outline more about their investigation that produced the charges.
“We’re talking about campaign finance allegations,” he said. “We’re talking about moving grant money allegations. Again, these are all allegations. We’re going to be looking at each individual charge.”
One of the Ammons defense attorneys told The Center Square that the House committee should postpone their work until after the federal case is settled.
“We’re looking into that part as well. Of course, we don’t want that proceeding to get in the way of this proceeding,” attorney Mutaquee Akbar said. “Hopefully we can postpone that so we can focus our attention on her due process rights in federal court.”
Niemerg said that’s not going to happen.
“They’re not going to be able to do that with this, this council that I am on,” Niemerg said. “We’re planning this out. We’re having these meetings, and we’re going to make sure that we do our due diligence in a timely manner and this does not drag on for a long period of time. It’s very important that we do this investigation and find out exactly what took place.”
Niemerg said the investigating committee outcome could determine whether a separate disciplinary committee would be created that could take further action against Ammons.
While not drawing any conclusions about the committee’s work until it is done, Niemerg said the Ammons case on top of other recent legislator corruption cases and misconduct allegations shows more work needs to be done to address ethics at the Statehouse.
The first committee hearing is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Sean Reed contributed to this report
