It only takes “a cursory reading” of a woman’s 2023 complaint about Harry Benton “to see a very early pattern and practice of sexual harassment” by the now-disgraced ex-state representative, according to Springfield’s top watchdog.
But that didn’t stop Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch from supporting Benton’s reelection campaign in a purple suburban district to the tune of $1.4 million.
And it would take nearly three years for Welch to take any meaningful action to rein in Benton’s alleged misconduct — only after two other women reported similar complaints about the Plainfield Democrat, who resigned July 3 under a cloud of troubling claims.
That’s the takeaway from Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey’s long-awaited report released Friday, outlining the lewd comments Benton is accused of making to the first woman he hired in his district office, to the district director of a colleague and to the lobbyist whose complaint started his downfall earlier this year.
When McCuskey submitted his findings to Welch June 30, he ultimately recommended that the speaker stick with the initial steps Welch took after the most recent complaint in February: booting Benton from the House Democratic Caucus and stripping him of committee assignments and Speaker’s Office staff support.
McCuskey concluded Benton’s behavior violated the Illinois Human Rights Act against sexual harassment, but he advised against the House expulsion proceedings that Welch later threatened, because they “would be lengthy and require a Special Session,” McCuskey wrote.
The inspector general didn’t evaluate Welch’s handling of the initial complaint, which fell outside the statute of limitations — and the latest complainant pushed back on what she deemed inaccuracies from her interview with McCuskey.
But the timeline laid out by McCuskey amplifies questions around how long Welch took to act, whether he could’ve prevented more misery — and whether he can hold onto his post in a chamber long mired in a culture of harassment.
“The Speaker must demonstrate a sincere desire to repair the harm he has done, and to correct the broken system in which we are all operating,” state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, said in a statement.
“[W]e have heard a series of excuses, victim blaming, and a failure to publicly acknowledge shortcomings. That has been disappointing,” said Cassidy, who voted “present” when Welch took the speaker’s gavel in 2021, citing concerns about unrelated past claims against Welch.
She stopped short of calling for Welch to step down, as Hoffman Estates Democrat Fred Crespo and many Republicans have.
“Efforts to make changes to the laws and procedures around inappropriate behavior in the Capitol must center the experiences of victims,” Cassidy wrote. “Unless we examine these policies through the eyes and experiences of the people we’re intending to protect, we will continue to fall short.”
Welch issued a lengthy statement asserting his office “acted responsibly — following legal guidance, respecting the wishes of those who came forward, and taking decisive action as additional information established a pattern of misconduct.”
But the speaker also acknowledged a need “to strengthen our laws, improve our policies, modernize our practices, and continue building a General Assembly worthy of the trust placed in it by every employee, every legislator, and every Illinois resident we are privileged to serve.”
“My office will work with all members of the House to explore creating a centralized human resources office to assist all members as employers and support their district office employees, and we will bring in an outside expert to review this case and make additional recommendations,” Welch said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing together legislators, advocates, workplace experts, and other stakeholders to identify stronger protections, streamline reporting processes, improve support for those who come forward, and ensure greater clarity and accountability at every level.”
A spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker said the report makes “clear the General Assembly has more work to do. … The House now has a responsibility to resolve any unanswered questions, strengthen its harassment prevention and reporting procedures, and hold itself to the high standard the people of Illinois expect and deserve.”
Benton, who hasn’t given up his elected post as Wheatland Township highway commissioner, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
He hasn’t addressed the scandal publicly, but Benton “denied ever saying or doing anything of a sexual nature” to the inspector general, and claimed never to have “attempted to sexually harass anyone,” McCuskey wrote.
New Benton allegation
Welch’s office received the first complaint just a few months after Benton was sworn into office, in an April 14, 2023, email from the new lawmaker’s district office employee, detailing “many odd statements made to the employee as well as many statements of direct sexual harassment,” McCuskey wrote.
Benton allegedly told her the “reason I ran for office was to get away from my wife,” sent her a picture of an OnlyFans model and then asked her to send it back because it “[m]akes me feel better now I have this on you.”
Benton made other comments suggesting she would use office equipment to produce pornographic content for OnlyFans, and told her “I am keeping you off the pole with this job,” according to McCuskey.
When she told Benton she was going to a gun range with her boyfriend, Benton allegedly replied, “Wow, you’re going to let him take you instead of me?”
“It doesn’t take but a cursory reading of the April 14, 2023 E-mail documentation from the complaining district office employee to see a very early pattern and practice of sexual harassment by Rep. Harry Benton,” McCuskey wrote.
But it wasn’t until after the employee resigned in June 2023 that Welch’s chief of staff and ethics officer “decided to confront Benton with these allegations,” McCuskey wrote, and they scheduled a Zoom meeting for July 20, 2023.
Benton invited the former employee to that meeting, which she did not attend.
“The reason I reported this was for the protection of the other women in the office,” she told Welch’s chief of staff, who encouraged her “to consider filing a report with the LIG.”
The complainant did not, and the Welch-controlled Democrats for the Illinois House political committee went on to pump more than $1 million into Benton’s hotly contested reelection campaign.
In a statement, the former Benton staffer said, “My hope is that this experience, my experience, leads to something more important: honest reflection on the culture change, the policy change, and the personal change Springfield needs to attract and keep its brightest talent, and to make it a place where the work that matters is the focus.”
McCuskey didn’t delve into revelations from the Chicago Tribune that Welch himself later sent heart-eye emojis in social media interactions with the former staffer that made her uncomfortable, and used an encrypted messaging app to invite her to meet at a bar.
McCuskey’s report revealed a new allegation against Benton from another district director who said the representative “was creepy” with her at a Springfield bar following Latino Unity Day festivities in May 2025.
“Rep. Benton approached her and leaned over her and put his hand on her back,” McCuskey wrote, leaving her “very uncomfortable” until another person intervened.
McCuskey called it a prime example of unacceptable behavior as outlined in state-mandated training that Benton and other lawmakers receive yearly.
The latest alleged infraction happened in January at a bar in River North, where Benton told a lobbyist, “I might be a 5, but I f— like a 10.”
Complainant disputes parts of LIG report
In a response from the lobbyist released Friday by the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission along with McCuskey’s report, she disputed several points from McCuskey, who “did not record our one-on-one interview or take contemporaneous notes,” she wrote.
The woman reported that Benton said, “I am not hitting on you, unless you are interested,” and, “Let’s just say you are too hot to be a lobbyist.”
McCuskey’s report says she “immediately turned to” another male state representative nearby who replied, “What do you want me to do about it?”
In reality, according to the complainant, she called that lawmaker the next day, he “listened to my story, shared my concern and indicated … what Benton said to me was not an isolated incident.”
She also 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. But the lobbyist said she told McCuskey that Benton showed her such photos as well.
“While the errors in the report are concerning, the underlying facts remain the same,” she wrote.
Welch soon exiled Benton from their caucus in February, but Republicans said the report shows Benton should have been rooted out long before then.
“The time that passed from ’23 to ’26 is entirely too long for something to go unaddressed,” said state Rep. Jeff Keicher, the Sycamore Democrat who chairs the Ethics Commission that released the report.
“Had the initial reporting been treated in a different manner, we certainly could have interceded,” Keicher said. “There are others potentially involved here, if this was as widespread and [widely] known, that also had an obligation to step up and make reports.”
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, has called for Welch to step down as speaker.
“The speaker continued to ignore it for three years [and] spent $1.4 million on a flawed member,” McCombie said. “The speaker let his ego, his ego not to lose one seat, come before values and principles of his caucus.
“He asks for respect and demands respect. He doesn’t respect his own members. And he certainly doesn’t respect the institution.”