The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has charged a state senator who represents Chicago with three federal criminal counts.
State Sen. Emil Jones III is a Democrat from Chicago, as well as the son of former state Senate President Emil Jones Jr. The elder Jones has been called Barack Obama's “political godfather.”
The younger Jones has served as a state senator since 2009 and is running unopposed for reelection this year. He's also being charged with federal bribery tied to a red-light camera scandal and then lying to the FBI about it.
A legal filing detailing his charges was obtained by The Center Square:
SafeSpeed LLC “was a Chicago-area company that provided automated traffic enforcement systems, commonly known as red-light cameras, which enabled municipalities to enforce certain traffic violations and issue traffic violation tickets.”
Jones is charged with soliciting and accepting bribes to write legislation favorable to SafeSpeed which enabled the company to earn millions of dollars from traffic tickets.
The feds have already charged one former top state lawmaker with accepting bribes from SafeSpeed.
Per The State Journal-Register:
“Jones is the second Illinois state senator to face charges related to a red light camera company. In 2020, then-Sen. Martin Sandoval, also a Chicago Democrat, was indicted on similar corruption charges related to a red light camera company identified as SafeSpeed LLC following a raid on his Statehouse office. He later resigned from office and pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion.
He agreed to cooperate with a continuing investigation in exchange for delayed sentencing. He died in December 2020 of complications from COVID-19 and never served time in prison.”
The scandal threatens to implicate other lawmakers in Springfield. On Tuesday, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) asked Jones III to resign from his leadership position and step down as the chair of the Licensed Activities committee.
“These are grave allegations. Members of the Senate and all public officials need to hold themselves to a high ethical standard for the public to have trust and faith in our work,” Harmon said.
Jones III is expected to plead guilty. He has not responded to calls for comment.
Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released his own statement, saying in part that “the Democrat Party of Illinois has become an organized crime family whose only purpose is to shakedown Illinois taxpayers.”
Durkin added that Jones III is the 11th Democrat in the Illinois General Assembly to be “indicted by the federal government in the last 10 years.”
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WHEN IS IT AMERICA HATING, SOROS SUCK BOY’S TURN?
Hopefully soros’ suck boy will be next! He is crooked as a snakes belly in a wagon rut! Time for him to face the music as well!
A corrupt Democrat Just another day in the swamp!
yes and it will be sweep under the rug.
GUILTY, but He is a Democrat Soros Criminal, so He will blame Trump and get off Scott free.
the Chicago system always corrupt since 1920s
Umm, hello? This is Illinois we are talking about. You know, Corruption Central? If there is a means to take a kickback or bribe our state legislature and governor will find it. We haven’t had a fair election in my lifetime and talk about the graveyard voting? Check! It is so bad that for the mail-in voting of 2020, the post office delivered ballots to the graveyards where the employees dutifully filled them out for the democrats and sent them back.