Prairie State Wire

GOP attorney general candidate Thomas DeVore is pointing out a flagrant violation in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s private incentivizing of top public employees via private funds.

DeVore alleges the payments illegally came from an outside entity, according to a press release.

“These top 15 employees receive money from a private company owned and controlled by JB Pritzker,” DeVore said in a press release.

“The state employees provide no service to this private entity and as such these payments can be construed as nothing more than a gift. Self-serving labels placed on the payments by Pritzker does not change their legal nature. Given these payments are a gift, the only question remaining is whether they are from a prohibited source. Illinois law defines a prohibited source to include any person who 1) does or seeks to do state business with the recipient or the recipient’s agency; as well as those who 2) have interests that may be substantially affected by the recipient’s official duties.”

“It is not even a question as to whether JB Pritzker does business with the state and its agencies. He has admitted to receiving billions of dollars in state contracts which are controlled by his administrative agencies. Furthermore, Pritzker’s personal, political and financial interests are substantially affected by the official duties of these state employees receiving these gifts. For these reasons, JB Pritzker is a prohibited source under Illinois law.”

“Just imagine for one second that JB Pritzker was not the Governor of the State of Illinois and he was making these gifts to state employees? The unlawfulness of the gifts would be woefully apparent and people would be screaming from the rooftop. His current position as a public official does not alter the legal analysis as to the use of his private resources being gifted to state employees.”

"When a prohibited source makes gifts to state employees, they are no longer state employees working for the interests of the people. They are state employees who may become beholden to the interests of those providing these gifts. Whose interests do these state employees put first? J.B. Pritzker’s private interests, his business interests, his political interests, or the interests of the people of Illinois who pay them for their services at an amount already deemed sufficient by the legislature?"

Pritzker’s blind trust has been the subject of an investigation by the Better Government Association (BGA) in recent weeks.

The BGA suggested Pritzker’s stake in 12 companies have the potential to improperly sway his policies.

Among the largest beneficiaries of Pritzker’s policies in which he has a financial interest through the “blind trust” is Centene corp.

The Medicaid operator, Centene, profited the state of more over $5 billion in 2021. The BGA pointed out that the governor broke his promise to sell all of his stocks in businesses doing business with the state and transfer his remaining holdings to a blind trust.

The governor or any staff members in his office have not made any comments regarding Pritzker's blind trust or its holdings in Centene.

The BGA reports Pritzker "has not distanced himself from active involvement in the blind trust, according to a spokesman.”

DeVore has also been concentrating heavily on the expanding Jenny Thornley scandal.

This is just the latest scandal to hit the Pritzker administration. 

It is alleged that the Pritzker administration assisted in ensuring that Jenny Thornley, a campaign worker, received payment on a fraudulent workers' compensation claim she filed while employed by a state merit board in relation to a debunked sexual assault allegation she made against her boss after he allegedly caught her forging his signature to inflate her paycheck.