Illinois’ top legislative watchdog is resigning in the wake of complaints over his handling of sexual harassment investigations that have roiled Springfield, including accusations from one complainant that the former judge didn’t take notes or record their interview.
Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey will step down later this month while the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission that oversees the office seeks his replacement, officials announced Tuesday.
The commission said it received “notification of an upcoming vacancy” in the LIG position Aug. 31, as calls grew for McCuskey’s ouster in the weeks following the release of his report on disgraced former Plainfield state Rep. Harry Benton’s conduct.
McCuskey’s report concluded Benton broke state law by sexually harassing three women, including a lobbyist who later rebutted several “inaccuracies” in the inspector general’s report.
In an email, McCuskey said he tendered his resignation effective Sept. 30, “so I can complete the work of the office by the end of the month.” He declined further comment.
In a response from the lobbyist released along with the Benton report July 31, she disputed several points from McCuskey, who “did not record our one-on-one interview or take contemporaneous notes,” she wrote.
The lobbyist said McCuskey misreported the sequence of events after Benton made lewd comments, and she disputed a separate claim that McCuskey deemed unfounded: a complaint that Benton had photos on his phone of women in “various stages of undress which he claimed to be involved with romantically.”
“Every woman member of the General Assembly I interviewed said they had heard about the pictures on Benton’s cell phone, but could not identify anyone who saw the pictures,” McCuskey wrote. The lobbyist said she told McCuskey that Benton showed her such photos as well.
McCuskey, a former state and federal judge, stood by his report “completely.”
“I have never tried cases in the press. Nor will I ever do so!” McCuskey wrote in a July 31 response.
But he defended his handling of the case during a radio interview last month, telling WMAY that he likes “to look the victim in the eye to get the feeling of anger, to get the feeling of being distraught… I don’t want my head down writing, which to me is [saying], ‘He’s just taking notes.’”
Arlington Heights state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, who chairs the House Democratic Women’s Caucus, had called for McCuskey to step down or be removed after the lobbyist further claimed the LIG “violated the confidence of other victims and me, broke standard investigative norms, and made inappropriate comments,” according to a Chicago Tribune report.
In a statement Tuesday, Canty said “McCuskey’s resignation is significant, but it does not end the culture of harassment that has persisted in Springfield for far too long.
“We must strengthen the laws that guard against harassment, build a process that survivors can trust, and show the leadership required to earn the public’s confidence,” Canty said.
The scandal has raised uncomfortable questions for Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, who was aware of a separate complaint against Benton about two years earlier but still directed $1.4 million into Benton’s 2024 reelection campaign.
And it has all underscored a perpetual culture of harassment in Springfield less than a decade after the #MeToo movement spurred lawmakers to fill a two-year vacancy in the legislative inspector general’s office. McCuskey, 78, has held the post since 2022.
Gov. JB Pritzker has urged lawmakers to bolster Springfield’s process for handling sexual harassment allegations.
“Obviously, [McCuskey] made a mistake in the way he talked about this,” Pritzker said. ”I can’t speak to whether or not he should step down… I do think that the entire matter that came before him and the legislative committee that considers breaches is one that needs to be thought about an awful lot over the next month or two.”
McCuskey faced more questions for his swift dismissal of allegations from a former staffer against state Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel, D-Ottawa.
McCuskey told the Sun-Times he deemed Laura Jackson’s complaint unfounded, but she told Capitol Fax the explanation she got was that “I was an at-will employee and that there wasn’t really anything that they could do for me… I was never told that anything was unfounded or anything like that.”
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, called McCuskey’s resignation “an opportunity to strengthen the office of the LIG, to fix the culture of harassment apparent within the House majority, and update Illinois’ ethics laws.”
“The legislature should move quickly to strengthen anti-corruption safeguards and increase the jurisdiction and authority of the office of the LIG,” McCombie said in a statement. “House Republicans have legislation ready that should be taken up during the veto session.”
State Rep. Jeff Keicher, the Sycamore Republican who chairs the Ethics Commission, said they were committed to filling McCuskey’s position “in a timely manner.” They’re seeking applications through Oct. 31.