Carbondale Reporter

Businessman and son-in-law of a former Cook County assessor James T. Weiss was found guilty of bribing a pair of then-Illinois Democrat state lawmakers and lying to the FBI.

“It's clear that the laws already on the books are not enough to prevent corruption in our state government,” said state Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Pomona) in a Facebook post. “If we hold lawmakers to the highest ethical standards, then we can stop bad behavior BEFORE it happens and prove to the people of Illinois that we are working in their best interests. The culture has to change in the statehouse if we want to earn the trust of our residents."

According to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times that Ryan included in his post, Weiss was convicted for bribing former state Rep. Luis Arroyo and former state Sen. Terry Link. Arroyo is currently serving time in prison and Link cooperated with the FBI but is facing incarceration due to tax crimes. The bribes were reportedly an attempt by Weiss to have legislators change laws to benefit him, and he subsequently lied to authorities about it. In the federal trial, the jury of seven women and five men took only a few hours to convict him on all charges of honest services wire and mail fraud, bribery and lying to the FBI. 

The Sun-Times reported that Weiss paid Arroyo at least $10,000 to have him push the sweepstakes legislation as Weiss is the owner of a company that operates sweepstakes machines, which are unlicensed video gambling machines. The indictment says the bribes went from November 2018 to October 2019. Link recorded several conversations with Arroyo which were played in court. He was not named in the indictment.

Fox 32 reported that Sen. Link testified in court that he worked with the FBI, but he previously had denied this information. The outlet reported that he hoped to catch a break when he was sentenced for his tax crimes.

Weiss is the sixth person convicted by a federal jury this year in Chicago. He was found guilty on seven charges.

The State Journal-Register reported that Weiss is facing a minimum of 20 years for the most serious charge, but also that public corruption convictions have brought different sentences.

Rep. Jacobs has been vocal about the corruption in the state before, including a Facebook post on May 5 about the ComEd Four Trial. This was connected to former House Leader Michael Madigan, who asked constituents for feedback on how to handle corruption in state government.