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SPRINGFIELD Allegations that Republican State Representative Chris Miller helped incite the Jan.6 insurgency were unfounded, the Legislative Watchdog found after conducting an investigation.
Whether the comments of the upstate cattleman in Washington, DC on that day represented conduct unbecoming of a lawmaker was a more specific question, conceded Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope .
But while she found Miller’s remarks at a rally intemperate, obnoxious and not excusable, Pope said she could not characterize them as conduct unbecoming of a lawmaker given the tenor of the remarks made by d. other lawmakers across the country at the time.
While my office recognizes the importance of free speech, it also recognizes that there are limits to the types of speech that are protected, Pope wrote in an email to Miller. I hope you will not exceed these limits in the future.
Calling the pope’s opinion on the U.S. Capitol uprising a full exemption, Republicans in Illinois are now calling on Democrats to remove from the record a resolution condemning Miller, calling it false and defamatory.
Democratic state representative Bob Morgan, who introduced the resolution, said Illinois House was clearly standing by its condemnation.
The Sun-Times obtained a copy of the email Pope sent Miller last Saturday.
In it, Pope wrote that the claims that Miller was one of the main instigators or participants in the insurgency were unfounded.
The allegations stem from comments Miller made on a live Facebook broadcast during a rally outside the United States Capitol on January 6.
Miller told onlookers that supporters of then-President Donald Trump were engaged in a great culture war to see which worldview would survive. Whether we remain a free people under free market capitalism or whether they will put us under the tyranny of socialism and communism and dangerous democratic terrorists.
The lower Oakland Republican is married to U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, a freshman Republican who was quoted at the same Jan.6 rally as saying Hitler was right about one thing, a reference to the conquering the minds of young people for whom she later apologized after harsh criticism.
State Representative Chris Miller, left, and United States Representative Mary Miller, center, with then President Donald Trump. From Facebook.
Following Millers’ statements, Illinois Democratic County Chairs Association President Kristina Zahorik asked the Inspector General of Laws to investigate the actions of State Representative Chris Millers that day.
And in March, in a partisan vote, the Illinois House condemned State Representative Chris Miller, accusing him of standing with the insurgents and helping to incite the riot in the January 6.
In her email, Pope wrote that State Representative Chris Millers’ comments that day were distasteful and not excusable, but she could not find it to be inappropriate conduct. [a legislator] in the context of the climate that existed in January 2021.
She added that many lawmakers have engaged in similar rhetoric at the state and federal levels and that in an interview with Miller, he vowed to lower the temperature of his future remarks.
Miller’s statements at the U.S. Capitol came under closer scrutiny after a photo of his truck posted on social media, showing a logo sticker of the Three Percent, a militia of extreme right wing who aims to overthrow the US government.
United States Representative Mary Miller and her husband, State Representative Chris Miller, center, pose next to their van in a campaign photo. From Facebook.
At the time, Miller said he was never a member of the group and received the sticker from a family friend who told him he represented the patriotism and love of the country.
Pope noted that a lawmaker seeking to overthrow his own government would engage in unseemly conduct, but she was convinced Miller had no such convictions.
In fact, you removed the sticker from your truck once you understood how the symbol was interpreted, she wrote.
Pope told the Sun-Times that he was prohibited from commenting on his investigation or its findings.
Miller said in a statement Wednesday that Pope exonerated me from all charges against me.
So as it stands, I’m doomed for simply having political views that are different from those of the far-left radicals who control the process in Springfield, Miller said.
It is absolutely offensive and incredibly anti-state for the majority party to adjourn without removing House Resolution 132 from the record, he said. I hope that Speaker Welch and the majority party in the House will develop a conscience and do the right thing and remove this harmful and baseless resolution from the record.
State Representative Chris Miller appears on a video screen defending himself on the floor of Illinois House in March, moments before the chamber passed a resolution condemning him for his activities on January 6 .
Miller’s compensation email led to a dusting on the floor of the house on Monday night.
State Representative Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, said the investigation led to a full exoneration of Miller and jumping to a conviction was reckless and irresponsible.
I would ask the sponsor, Rep Morgan, to do what’s right and respectful with a fellow Representative and remove this bogus and slanderous resolution from the record, Wilhour said.
Morgan refused.
In an interview with the Sun-Times on Wednesday, Morgan said his resolution was very carefully drafted by me and passed by the General Assembly and the House was clearly sticking to those comments.
The Deerfield Democrat said he respected Pope and his investigation, but added that the definition of conduct unbecoming of a lawmaker was clearly something the General Assembly itself had to determine and Miller’s conduct was very clearly improper.
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