Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan tried to set the record straight on how his office handles sexual harassment claims. The Speaker issued a one-page press release on Tuesday with brief summaries of complaints involving staffers working in his state office.
One female staffer said a male colleague threatened to ruin her career. Another said she was intimidated and manipulated by a male co-worker.
Those are a few of the nine complaints on the list Madigan said is the product of an internal investigation.
Madigan said the list shows all complaints made over the past five years and how each was resolved, though no names or dates are provided.
Members of his own caucus have called for the Speaker to step down from his leadership roles, alleging his office had a culture of tolerating harassers and mishandling complaints. But the Speaker again pushed back on those claims.
“There’s no culture with me, and if you read through how these were processed, you can see that at the leadership level, we don’t tolerate inappropriate behavior,” Madigan said.
The list provides vague descriptions of how each complaint was resolved, and the Speaker claims confidentiality kept his office from disclosing other details.
Complaints against lobbyists and caucus members, as well as those stemming from Madigan’s campaign office, were also omitted.
