Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
SPRINGFIELD, IL — In 2022, seven news outlets exposed a workers’ compensation fraud scandal involving Jenny Thornley, a longtime J.B. Pritzker campaign volunteer who received approximately $71,000 in state benefits based on a sexual assault claim that investigators determined never occurred.
The Illinois Department of Insurance called it “a clear case of fraud.” When reporters pressed for answers, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office publicly confirmed it had referred the case for criminal prosecution.
Then the story vanished.
True Signal Media filed Freedom of Information Act requests to find out why.
On January 14, 2026, the AG’s office responded with a stunning claim: “This office has conducted a search and has located **no records** responsive to your request” for referral documents, investigation records, or prosecution decisions related to Thornley’s workers’ compensation fraud.
There’s one problem: In the same response, the AG provided five emails that explicitly contradict that claim.
One email, dated February 18, 2022, from Deputy Attorney General Timothy Diamond states: “The referral was submitted to Office of the Attorney General, but because we do not have original jurisdiction in the matter, I am forwarding it on to your office.”
The email references an attached document — “Thornley.pdf” — described as “a prosecution request articulated in the attached memo.”
The AG did not produce that attachment.
Additional emails show:
– Internal AG staff asking in February 2022: “Has our office received a referral from the Workers Comp Fraud Unit at the Department of Insurance regarding former state employee Jenny Thornley?”
– July 2022 coordination between the AG, State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, and Sangamon County State’s Attorney about who would handle the case
– AG staff worried about media inquiries: “We now have a question from a reporter about this”
– References to additional documents never produced, including a CMS memorandum about prosecution decisions
The emails reveal systematic buck-passing between agencies: The AG claimed no jurisdiction and forwarded the case to the State’s Attorney. The State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor said it “has never done any worker’s comp fraud case” and that such matters go to “the AG’s worker’s comp fraud division.” No agency prosecuted the fraud.
TSM has filed a formal appeal with the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor, using the AG’s own emails to document the false “no records exist” claim.
The appeal states: “The AG cannot simultaneously produce emails discussing a referral AND claim no referral records exist.”
BACKGROUND:
The 2022 Media Investigation That Went Nowhere:
In July and August 2022, the following outlets reported on Thornley’s workers’ compensation fraud:
– Chicago Tribune
– Illinois Times
– The Center Square
– Wirepoints
– WorkCompCentral
– Chicago Crusader
– Cities 92.9
All reported the same facts: Thornley filed a workers’ compensation claim in January 2020, days after making a sexual assault allegation against her supervisor that an independent investigation concluded “never occurred.” She listed Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office as her employer and Pritzker as her supervisor.
Despite being fired for fraud in July 2020 for falsifying overtime records, Thornley received the workers’ compensation benefits anyway.
When reporters asked why the fraud wasn’t being prosecuted, AG Raoul publicly stated his office had referred the matter to the State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor.
**But internal emails obtained by TSM show that referral created a jurisdictional game of hot potato,** with each agency claiming another should handle it.
The workers’ compensation fraud was never prosecuted. Thornley eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of theft related to overtime fraud — receiving a sentence of 30 months’ probation and $10,000 restitution, a fraction of the more than $138,000 in combined theft and fraudulent benefits.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The Public Access Counselor must now determine whether the AG’s “no records exist” claim is credible when the AG’s own emails reference those records.
TSM is preparing a comprehensive investigation examining:
– Why multiple agencies coordinated to avoid prosecuting workers’ compensation fraud against the state
– Whether political considerations influenced prosecutorial decisions
– The pattern of lenient treatment for a politically connected state employee
– Whether the AG’s FOIA obstruction tactics are systematic
The 2022 media coverage exposed the fraud. TSM’s 2026 FOIA requests are exposing the cover-up.
ACCOUNTABILITY SIGNAL:
When seven news outlets report the same corruption scandal and then the story disappears, something went wrong. When government agencies claim records don’t exist while simultaneously referencing those records in writing, that’s not incompetence. That’s obstruction.
True Signal Media will continue following this story until the public knows why no one prosecuted fraud against the state.
Signal Dispatch is TSM’s rapid-response accountability journalism, flagging government transparency failures and official obstruction in real time.
Full investigation forthcoming.