In a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s mass pardon of Jan. 6 rioters, Gov. JB Pritzker has blocked anyone who participated in the 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection from getting a job with the state of Illinois.
Pritzker issued a directive Thursday to the state’s Department of Central Management Services, which oversees hiring, to consider “any participation” in the riot that sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss as “infamous and disgraceful conduct” violating Illinois’ personnel code.
The Democratic governor, a vocal Trump critic on the national political stage, wrote in the internal document that rioters “attacked law enforcement officers protecting people in the Capitol, disrupted the peaceful transfer of power, and undermined bedrock principles of American democracy.”
“Our State workforce must reflect the values of Illinois and demonstrate honesty, integrity, and loyalty to serving the taxpayers,” the Democratic governor wrote in the directive obtained by the Sun-Times. “No one who attempts to overthrow a government should serve in government.”
A mob of about 2,500 people broke into the Capitol in the unprecedented attack, injuring almost 200 police officers and causing almost $3 million in damage, according to FBI estimates.
Trump distanced himself from the rioters in the insurrection’s aftermath, but embraced them as political “hostages” on the campaign trail last year.
Hours after retaking office last week, Trump declared he was ending “a grave national injustice” by pardoning more than 1,500 people “convicted of offenses related to events” at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The returning Republican president also commuted the sentences of an additional 14 participants and ordered the U.S. attorney general to seek dismissal of all pending indictments.
At least 53 Illinois residents from across the state faced federal charges stemming from the riot, including a onetime suburban CEO, a Chicago police officer and a member of the far-right Proud Boys.
“These crimes… threatened public safety as Members of Congress, staff, and other workers were forced to hide from the violence for hours,” Pritzker wrote, calling Jan. 6 participation “antithetical to the mission of the State.”
That designation would violate state hiring law, precluding any rioter from getting a state job. Illinois employs more than 70,000 people.
Illinois Republican Party Chair Kathy Salvi dismissed Pritzker’s directive as “grandstanding” by the governor “in his insatiable hunger for the White House in 2028.” Pritzker was floated as a potential vice president candidate last year for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, and has done little to quell notions of his own presidential ambitions.
“Over the last two weeks, Gov. Pritzker has shown us that he is a vengeful and egotistical man who is out of touch with working men and women,” Salvi said in a statement.
“Instead of working for Illinois families or with the new Republican administration to improve the lives of Illinoisans, he is creating division and chaos… His grandstanding ignores the will of the American people.”