Harmon, Welch Spending Hundreds of Thousands on Politically-Connected Lawyers
House Speaker Chris Welch
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House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money using politically connected outside lawyers, instead of lawyers on each staff or with the Illinois Attorney General’s office, records show.
In documents provided to The Illinoize under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, House Democrats have spent some around $390,000 on outside legal counsel since Welch became Speaker in 2021.
Around $187,000 of the money spent went to the firm Hinshaw & Culbertson mostly for services "in connection with a federal investigation, including but not limited to a federal grand jury subpoena for documents served on the Office of the Speaker on July 17, 2020."
The subpoena tracks with the investigation into and criminal charges against former Speaker Michael Madigan.
It isn’t clear the scope of the work Hinshaw & Culbertson did for House Democrats and what was turned over to the federal government. A Welch spokesperson did not return a message Tuesday.
Hinshaw has long ties to the Illinois political scene. Partner J. William Roberts, a former chief legal counsel to then-Gov. Jim Edgar, was lead attorney for Madigan for at least a portion of time in the mid-2000’s. During that time, Madigan’s campaign committee paid the firm at least $40,000 in fees. Hinshaw also represented Madigan in a highly publicized sexual harassment lawsuit in 2018.
House Democrats paid attorney and lobbyist Heather Weir Vaught around $100,000, while Senate Democrats paid her around $15,000 in relation to redistricting work. Weir Vaught is a powerhouse Democrat lobbyist and longtime top staffer to Madigan, serving for many years as his top lawyer.
Another top former Madigan aide and influential lobbyist and attorney, Michael Kasper, was paid around $90,000 by House Democrats and around $50,000 by Senate Democrats mostly related to redistricting. Kasper also represented House Democrats in the recent court case challenging the controversial SAFE-T Act, but those bills were not provided under our FOIA request.
Around $85,000 of Senate Democrat funds were spent on defense of a long-running case where two former Senators sought back pay from the state. Firm Roetzel & Andress represented Democrats.
A politically connected former staffer to Harmon, attorney Luke Casson, has also received work from Senate Democrats. Casson and Chicago attorney Devon Bruce represented Senate Democrats in the SAFE-T Act lawsuit, but have only billed $300 in vouchers provided to The Illinoize under FOIA. (Disclosure: Casson and Bruce are representing Senate Democrats in our First Amendment suit against Harmon and his staff.)
State law says the Attorney General is “to defend all actions and proceedings against any State officer, in his official capacity, in any of the courts of this State or the United States.”
So, why use outside counsel?
An Attorney General spokesperson says the state’s Indemnification Act allows elected officials to seek outside counsel.
But there are likely to be complaints, specifically from Republicans.
“The rich get richer and Democrats keep lining each other’s pockets,” said one GOP lawmaker Tuesday.
Though, Republicans also spent thousands on outside counsel during the redistricting debate and court battle in 2021.