Shelby County whataboutisms, false, and incomplete information –

Shelby Co., Ill. (ECWd) –

Despite whataboutisms, false, and incomplete information being shared by certain Shelby County conspiracy theorists and residents with a political agenda and a Facebook page, our reporting has and will continue to be spot on, truthful, and based on the information provided by public bodies pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

One recent example was their post attempting to “prove” our reporting of former State’s Attorney Nichole Kronke’s use of the county credit card was false or misleading.

Any public credit card records with redactions are and should be subjected to heightened scrutiny. Redacting that credit card statement the way it was presented to the county clerk was an unauthorized destruction of a public record (isn’t that right Matt Lane?). County credit was used and the public has a right to know what they were used for, – reimbursed or not.

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

• The FOIA responses as received from Shelby County Clerk Jessica Fox: Parts 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8.
• The Shelby County Clerk’s email stating she received the bills redacted from Nichole Kronke’s office, and that she, the Clerk, only redacted the personal information on the statements (here).

Facebook post: “But the paperwork filed with the Shelby County Clerk is NOT redacted” – Our Response: Which records?  The very document we published was in fact redacted so the implication it was not by pointing to “other” records is a classic misinformation tactic.  If the records provided to the county clerk were not redacted as SCF attempts to claim, then either the Shelby County Clerk gave us “doctored” records and lied in her emailed response to me (highly unlikely), or the clerk is inconsistent with records production depending on who requests them (we have no knowledge indicating this to be the case).  We agree, there are all kinds of records that were not redacted but those records do not answer the questions raised.  Note, that questions are not accusations.  We are still waiting on the explanation as to why a SA office needs three memberships to Amazon Prime.  The fact that point was ignored in their misinformation is telling.

Facebook post: “Meanwhile, an unredacted, clean, and complete copy, was filed with the Shelby County Clerk’s office on 1-3-2023 before Ms. Kronke resigned” – Our response: Read the paragraph above, and, we can say that we have personally read a sworn statement by a law enforcement officer, presented to a Court, stating that the Kronke’s credit card statements in the county clerk’s office show redacted statements. This sworn statement will be the subject of a future article and will be provided for all to read when the article is published.  The wordsmithing being done points to an entirely different document than the one we posted which was redacted.  If the propagandist has an unredacted, clean, and complete copy of what we published in our article we challenge them to publish that document rather than to misrepresent and imply the unredacted document being the same one we wrote about.

“They miss a lot of important things that changes the whole narrative” – Tricia Miller, you should apply your comment to SCF and what they have been spewing.

Alleged Hotels and ARDC dues of Kronke – read our article published on May 21, 2024, and updated on May 22, 2024. We go through the credit card statements in question, even linking to the redacted statements as provided to us by the county clerk.  We also confirmed in this article the actual State’s Attorney Conference was held in Oakbrook, IL and while the propaganda claims that is what the hotel charge was for, note they provide no proof of that.  To date, there has been no registration record or payment for attendance to that conference located in the county records.  While it is entirely possible the hotel reservation made was for a hotel in Oakbrook, Illinois, there is zero evidence located to date to indicate where the actual hotel stay was for.  The registration paperwork would look like this document which we obtained as part of our FOIA to every county in the state. If Kronke went to the conference as claimed why is there no registration documents and payment for the conference, considering the registration would have been before she chose to accept a new job with the state?

Just as we said in the article, “We sure hope the ISP is paying attention and gets answers to these questions in their investigation.”  The fact there was enough probable cause for search warrants to be signed regarding this matter indicates law enforcement had questions as well, and let’s not forget the topic of record destruction.  Kroncke utilized an official Facebook page to post her convictions on, and those pages were filled with comments.  All of those records are gone yet the blind loyalists see no issue with those records being missing.

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