SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The Illinois Legislative Ethics Commission unanimously voted Thursday to release a report detailing sexual harassment allegations made against former Rep. Harry Benton (D-Plainfield). This move is a major step for transparency surrounding the claims, but the report won't be made public yet.

The disgraced Democrat will now have a week to review the report and request that certain information be redacted. It may seem strange that a lawmaker accused of sexual harassment would be allowed to redact information before this report is released. However, that is the current policy when Illinois lawmakers are accused of any wrongdoing.

Gov. JB Pritzker is demanding answers.

"People should be held to a very high standard," Pritzker said at an unrelated event Wednesday. "If you are going to serve in public office, elected office especially, but appointed office also, you have to live up to the standard that the public should expect of you, which is a very high standard. People have fallen down on that job."

Sources say the report that led to Benton's resignation earlier this month surrounds a lewd conversation Benton had with a lobbyist while he was intoxicated at an event in Chicago. However, in-depth reporting from the Chicago Tribune shows Benton also harassed a former member of his staff in 2023. 

The woman told Tribune reporters she notified Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch's then-chief of staff about the situation, but Welch did not speak with Benton until months later, and no action was taken.

"The Speaker has a responsibility to be utterly and completely transparent about the situation to make sure he's making the public know as well as his members know exactly what happened," Pritzker said. "And to the extent that he made mistakes, to own up to those mistakes."

Welch is also facing criticism from members of his caucus after the Tribune found he sent inappropriate emoji reactions to Benton's former staffer on social media. The Speaker is accused of asking the staffer to meet privately at a popular Chicago bar as well.

"I believe that these members of the House don't want their House to be besmirched by the things that members have done, what they've been caught doing, or by a failure of leadership," Pritzker said. "So, they will have that discussion with their leader, and they'll make a decision about whether he should be their leader going forward." 

The woman who filed the sexual harassment complaint against Benton will also have the opportunity to review the report before it is made public. She can offer redaction suggestions and provide a response to be published with the report. 

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