Chicago City Wire

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx is missing in action as a federal investigation into alleged nepotism involving Democratic Party officials gains momentum in Chicago, according to a former judge currently campaigning on the Republican ballot to unseat Foxx in November. 

“In regards to any investigation of bribery or misconduct by elected Democratic officials, whether House Speaker Michael Madigan or anybody else, Kim Foxx is nowhere to be found,” said Pat O’Brien, who was elected as a judge for the Cook County Circuit Court where he presided for eight years,

Madigan, named by the U.S. attorney as Public Official A, was urged by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to step down from office if the charges prove to be true, according to the Chicago Tribune. Investigators allegedly tied some property assessment paperwork to his law firm Madigan & Getzendanner. Madigan is head of the Illinois Democratic Party.

“If you have a duty because you're the state's attorney to investigate corruption and you failed to take any steps to do that and over time it's revealed that the federal government has charged or indicted people who are elected officials in your own party, then your failure to act makes you complicit in the corruption,” O’Brien said of Foxx.

As previously reported in the DuPage Policy Journal,  ComEd will pay a $200 million fine to end a federal investigation that uncovered payments of more than $1.3 million to associates of Madigan. The speaker has not been charged although he is named in the investigation.

“The federal government will do a very good job because they always have but they can't do it alone,” O’Brien told the Chicago City Wire. “Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has a duty and the authority to prosecute corruption but she, like a matador, stands there with her red cape and waves it on through.”

During a news conference in Waukegan, Pritzker told journalists, “These allegations strike at the core of what public service means . . . If these allegations of wrongdoing by the speaker are true, there is no question that he will have betrayed the public trust, and he must resign.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Pritzker allegedly was the beneficiary of a tax break provided by former Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios.  Foxx has not been implicated in the investigation by federal prosecutors but O’Brien says it’s only a matter of time.

“Kim Foxx, as the state's attorney, has the same authority as the federal government to investigate bribery and misconduct, which occur in Cook County but she has done nothing,” O’Brien said. “You've got the state party chairman, Michael Madigan, who essentially supports her and the investigation is ongoing, which means there will be more.”

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) said he hopes Madigan regrets supporting Foxx based on what is happening in Chicago.

"Kim Foxx, being the state's attorney there, has turned loose criminals, not prosecuted gang members, looters, rioters and she's soft on gun crime," Caulkins told the Chicago City Wire. "Chicago is in terrible straights because there's no law and order and Mr. Madigan owns a big, big piece of that."