The Attorney General is a critically important position to the people of Champaign County. It is the state’s top law enforcement officer and should be an independent advocate for all of the people of Illinois. To protect the people of Champaign County, and all working families in Illinois, I would have four primary areas of priority as Attorney General.
First, as Attorney General, my number one priority will be to stand up for Illinois residents who have their constitutional rights violated by Trump and to limit Trump’s attempts to abuse his power. Donald Trump represents a threat to our democracy, our constitutional rights, and our basic system of government. Since his inauguration, state Attorneys General have used the legal system to thwart his agenda. They challenged Trump’s unconstitutional travel ban, the end of net neutrality, and the rule limiting access to contraception in the Affordable Care Act, and many others. They have done this for good reason—it is incredibly effective and can help force real change through the legal system.
State Attorneys General are the last line of defense against the Trump Administration, and I will do everything I can to stop Trump’s assault on working families, the poor, the sick, and communities of color. For example, I would take legal action against Trump’s discriminatory immigration policies. Specifically, the unconstitutional practice of requiring DACA recipients to provide identifying information to the government under the guise of providing protections, only to then use that very information to deport them. The Affordable Care Act also is under attack because of Trump’s cruel and reckless tax plan that repealed the individual mandate, denying thousands of people health care coverage and raising premiums.
Governor Rauner and President Trump are working together to secure a favorable Supreme Court ruling in the Janus v. AFSCME case. This would hurt working people and undermine the collective bargaining process for state employees. This outlook of this case doesn’t look good, and it represents yet another example of Governor Rauner’s number one priority: decimating organized labor. If, as expected, the Supreme Court rules against AFSCME, I would advocate for state and federal legislation that would prevent the implementation of unfair labor practices in Illinois and maintain collective bargaining rights. I also would work to ensure that all public employees are provided sufficient information about the benefits of joining or remaining in a union.
Second, I will use the office of the Attorney General to fight against economic injustice and level the playing field between rich and poor. The first issue I will tackle is the epidemic of wage theft in Illinois. Since 2014, more than $50 million in claims have come before the state where people are being denied the wages they deserve. No one should be deprived of the wages they are owed, and the state needs to do a better job of cracking down on businesses that refuse to follow the law. I will also fight to ensure that all workers have the opportunity to earn the prevailing wage in Illinois and go after companies that skirt their responsibility to do so. As a prosecutor, I have taken on the banks and corporations who take advantage of working people, and I will root out fraud and economic inequality as Attorney General.
Third, free and safe elections are the foundation of our democracy. We will quickly lose our credibility with our citizens and around the world if the security of our elections continues to be compromised. I want to make Illinois a national leader in election security. As Attorney General, I will lead a full investigation into the Russian attack on our voting systems in Illinois as well as the vulnerability of our voting systems going forward. I will issue a public report of our findings, including recommendations to better defend our system, including the creation of a dedicated election security officer to ensure that the systems remain as secure as possible, an audit of a random sample of ballots in future elections, and a paper trail.
Fourth, it’s long past time for us to enshrine women’s equality in to our Constitution, and, as Attorney General, I will fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
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I have been a litigator, prosecutor, and trial lawyer for my entire career. After law school, I clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I worked in private practice as a litigation attorney for five years. I then spent almost ten years as a federal prosecutor investigating and prosecuting hundreds of cases in a wide variety of areas including: child exploitation, human trafficking, cyber-crime, gun trafficking, tax evasion, fraud, obstruction of justice, public corruption, narcotics trafficking, and more. In 2016, I returned to the private sector at the law firm of Thompson Coburn, where I work today, representing clients in many types of high-stakes litigation matters.
As part of the Department of Justice’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Section, I handled the first-ever prosecution of a high-frequency trader under the anti-spoofing provision of the Dodd-Frank Act. I also secured the convictions of Bogdanov crime family, Block 37 developer Larry Freed, and convicted bank robber Jose Banks, who later escaped from prison and threatened to kill me. I was twice featured on American Greed, Bill Kurtis’s show about white-collar criminals.
I have volunteered with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, Cook County’s largest provider of civil legal services to people who cannot afford them. I co-chair Lawyers4Choice and serve on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society. I am an environmental advocate, and volunteer with the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.
Following the election of Donald Trump, I began speaking and writing against the President’s discriminatory and unconstitutional policies, contributing to several major media outlets and advising Congress.
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I will take a more active approach towards combating public corruption and improving economic justice. My opponents are going to spend a lot of time and effort coming up with very generous interpretations of their records of achievement in public office or politically appointed positions. But they’re all political insiders who have benefited from a broken system and allowed it to remain in place unchecked.
I am not a politician or a political insider. I am not beholden to special interests or the political apparatus. I am a lawyer who has spent my career protecting people and prosecuting those who try to abuse the system. I will fight on behalf of the people of Illinois to make sure that their government is working for them.
We also need to make our representatives go above the minimum that the law requires. I will advocate for more transparency and will conduct investigations to shine a light on unethical practices that needs to end.
The choice could not be clearer – do the people of Illinois want a career politician beholden to a rigged system, or a career prosecutor and litigator who will aggressively fight in the courtroom and in Springfield on their behalf?
I am the only candidate who has lived in the legal system fighting power, fighting economic inequality, fighting injustice, and winning those fights. I will work to make our state a place where workers can thrive, all communities can thrive, and businesses can operate on a fair and level playing field.
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In 2014, our state elected a Governor who believes that people who work for a living make too much money and he's done everything in his power to advance an agenda that would hurt working families. In 2016, our nation elected a President who has undermined the rule of law and who has done everything he can to line the pockets of the rich at the expense of the people who are trying to make ends meet. It's time to step up and fight back, and that's why I'm running for Attorney General.
Neither of my parents went to college. My dad didn't even graduate from high school. They both worked two jobs to help put me through school. My dad is still working as a cashier at Walmart, and doesn't receive the hours and wages he deserves because of Walmart's anti-union stance. I want to fight for people like my parents and your members against a system that is stacked against them.
As a former prosecutor, I spent my career going after criminals who tried to abuse the system. I prosecuted and won the first case ever brought against a high-frequency trader. After I put a bank robber in jail he told fellow inmates he wanted to kill me and later escaped prison. I am ready to take on any fight that is necessary. I have beaten Wall Street, I have beaten the bank robbers and I beat cancer. Now I want to fight for my state and its people.
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