West Cook News

Cook County Republican Party chairman and Cook County commissioner Sean Morrison said the “cover up” from the Jenny Thornley workers' compensation scandal is likely to weigh on voters this fall.

“The circumstance of her actions and the organized efforts to cover it up from the Pritzkers and other senior most appointed and elected officials is appalling, but not surprising as it appears to be yet another example of alleged crimes and cover up involving JB Pritzker, his family member,  allies and the Democrat machine,” Morrison told West Cook News. “This issue will only grow legs and he will only be held accountable if the press asks the governor the hard questions regarding this case, as well as the toilet gate.”

Morrison said Attorney General Kwame Raoul should be prosecuted and disbarred if facts show – as Tom Devore, Republican candidate for Illinois attorney general, alleges – that Raoul sought to cover all this up by seeking dismissal of a lawsuit.

DeVore is drawing attention to an alleged fraud case involving the governor's office influence.

Jenny Thornley, an Illinois State Police (ISP) Merit Board staffer and adviser to the Pritzker campaign, was charged with stealing money from the government. When her supervisor found out, she threatened him, but an investigation was still started.

Thornley then made contact with the governor's spouse in order to assist her in February 2020. Thornley later filed a bogus workers' compensation claim naming Pritzker's office as her employer rather than the ISP Meter Board, working with Pritzker's top staff.

Ann Spillane, general counsel for Pritzker, handled and approved the false claim directly. An independent investigation came to the conclusion that the claim was nothing more than a state fraud scheme. Raoul had knowledge of the scheme's participants' involvement at the highest levels of the Pritzker administration, but he chose not to take any action.

Illinois taxpayers footed the bill for the $550,000 independent investigation that cleared a state supervisor of a sexual harassment claim brought by a state employee by the name of Thornley.

Thornley submitted a workers' compensation claim for physical and mental suffering, but the investigation found no evidence of such harassment. Thornley's organization was not made aware of the claim until after it had already been paid out by the Pritzker administration.

The context is that Thornley was a State Police Merit Board member and worked as Pritzker's campaign assistant in 2018. When she was accused of defrauding the government, her supervisor Jack Garcia, the executive director of the Merit Board, was informed.

She named Pritzker as her boss when she eventually submitted a workers' compensation claim, despite the fact that she had never worked in his office. But the claimed abuse never happened.

A grand jury in Springfield indicted Thornley for salary and expense fraud in September 2021 after he was fired in July 2020. Despite knowing that this accusation was untrue, the governor's office subtly encouraged it.

Even worse, following the successful dismissal of a whistleblower claim, Raoul did nothing to hold anyone accountable, Wirepoints reported.

Democrats Pritzker and Raoul are under pressure from DeVore to take action in the Thornley workers' compensation fraud case.

This fall, a trial for Thornley is slated to take place in Sangamon County. She is charged with forgery, theft and misconduct in office.

Raoul asked the court to dismiss the case the Merit Board had filed in an effort to expose the scheme. The case was dismissed when the judge made his decision.

DeVore has asked, “Why did they pay her the money after we had already proven that she was not sexually assaulted?”