CHICAGO –  Welcome back for our second installation of Continuing Corruption, a reminder of the aberrant activity that plagues the Illinois Democrat Party. Illinois taxes are hard enough to stomach for the average citizen, but knowing that your hard earned dollar is being used to pay off someone else’s lawsuit is a hard slap in the face – even more so when you find out Sen. Michael Hastings is still a powerful legislator. 

Hastings was first made a defendant in 2019, when his former chief of staff sued on the basis of racial, gender, disability, political discrimination, and harassment. Instead of doing the right thing and paying for his lawyers out-of-pocket, the state paid a private attorney to defend him to the tune of $47,000. That’s right, almost $50K of taxpayer funds went to help a politician defend inappropriate conduct. The lawsuit lasted two years and was settled out of court in 2022.

And you know who paid for that settlement? Illinois taxpayers had to cough up $150,000 to pay for Hastings’s misconduct! That money could’ve been spent on roads, infrastructure, literally anything better than where it ended up.

Yeah, that’s not all he’s done. It gets worse.

Divorce proceedings between Hastings and his ex-wife started in 2021 and were unsealed in late 2022, revealing very disturbing details about the senator’s home life.

Police records obtained by WBEZ showed that his ex-wife told officers that Hastings physically abused her in 2020 by putting her in a headlock and repeatedly threw her against a door. Other court documents and police records show a pattern of physical and verbal abuse towards his ex-wife, including alleged incidents where he abused her in front of their two children. The same two children that Hastings proudly shows off on his campaign website. Classy.

In September 2022, Hastings tried to weaponize the police against his ex-wife during a custody exchange of the children by attempting to have her arrested. Officers declined to arrest his ex-wife as she had not committed any crimes.

An environmental lobbyist publicly cut all ties with Hastings after alleging that the Senator would get into unprofessional outbursts, bully her, and intimidate her throughout their five year working relationship. And frankly, who can blame her?

Sen. Michael Hastings currently sits on three committees: Judiciary, Licensed Activities, and Special Issues. He isn’t some random politician taking up space, he’s a powerful member of the Illinois Democrat Party, and no one is stopping him.

###