Two weeks after abruptly resigning from office, former state Sen. Thomas Cullerton is scheduled to plead guilty Tuesday in a federal embezzlement case alleging he took a do-nothing job with the Teamsters union.
Former Illinois state Sen. Thomas E. Cullerton leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse after pleading not guilty, Aug. 16, 2019, in federal court to embezzlement charges.
His trial had been scheduled for April. But Cullerton instead resigned from office on Feb. 23, hours before his attorney notified U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman that they’d reached a plea deal with prosecutors. According to the indictment, then-Teamsters boss John Coli conspired with Cullerton in 2013 to give the newly elected senator a do-nothing job with the clout-heavy union. Over the next three years, the two ignored complaints from supervisors when Cullerton failed to even show up for work, according to the charges.
He resigned on Feb. 23 via a letter sent to Tim Anderson, secretary of the Senate, confirming his resignation from the body.