SubX.News® Corruption Report
Chicago’s own Inspector General says Mayor Brandon Johnson ignored a direct order to fire his senior adviser, Jason Lee, after Lee refused to cooperate with an official corruption investigation — and that Johnson’s office refused to issue any punishment at all.
The investigation began after Alderman Bill Conway accused Lee of trying to trade public safety for a political vote.
Conway said Lee promised to have the city clear a violent homeless encampment in his ward if he voted for the Mayor’s proposed real estate transfer tax.
Conway called it “an attempt to extort my vote in exchange for basic public safety services.”
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) opened a formal probe and demanded interviews and records from Lee.
He ignored the requests.
Under Municipal Code § 2-56-090, that refusal alone is grounds for termination.
OIG sustained the case and recommended Lee’s firing.
Three other city departments — the Chicago Police Department, the Department of Public Health, and the Office of Public Safety Administration — followed OIG’s recommendation and fired their employees for the same violation.
The Mayor’s Office did not.
“Oversight is an effective bulwark against inefficiency and abuse only when it is unobstructed,” said Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.
“As OIG has worked during this term to pursue our investigative work more aggressively than ever before, we have been vigilant in guarding our work from interference.”
“In the fourth of those investigations, the Mayor’s Office declined to terminate — or, in fact, to discipline at all — a senior employee against whom OIG sustained failure-to-cooperate allegations,” Witzburg wrote.
“I am troubled by an appearance that there are different rules for different people, depending on who they are and with whom they work.”
That “senior employee” is Jason Lee — a $189,000-a-year adviser and longtime political operative connected to the Chicago Teachers Union and United Working Families.
The Inspector General ordered termination.
Mayor Brandon Johnson refused.
No firing. No suspension. No discipline at all.
Lee’s protection isn’t new. His time in City Hall has been surrounded by conflict-of-interest and residency scandals that trace back to Texas.
In January 2024, the Chicago Sun-Times exposed how Lee’s mother, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D–Texas), raised more than $80,000 in Chicago while running for mayor of Houston — much of it from developers, lobbyists, and city contractors doing business with Johnson’s administration.
Johnson himself attended one of the fundraisers.
Months later, Texas election records showed Lee voted in Harris County during the 2024 election while serving as a Chicago city employee.
The city’s residency code requires all employees to live within city limits.
When confronted, Lee said his “home and family” were in Texas and his stay in Chicago was “temporary for work.”
An internal residency review was opened — but Lee kept his job.
Now, with the OIG confirming sustained violations and an explicit refusal by the Mayor to enforce its ruling, Chicago’s “reform” administration looks indistinguishable from the corruption it promised to replace.
“A government which is accountable to the governed cannot tolerate a refusal of scrutiny,” Witzburg said.
Yet the refusal stands.
Jason Lee remains on the city payroll — a proven lawbreaker protected by the Mayor who talks about accountability.
Photo: Senior adviser Jason Lee (right) with Mayor Brandon Johnson at McCormick Place in July 2023. Pat Nabong / Sun-Times.
Sources
OIG Releases Third Quarter 2025 Report, Documenting Failure of Mayoral Staff to Cooperate with OIG Investigations, Sexual Misconduct, and more PPP Loan Fraud by City Employees
October 15, 2025
https://igchicago.org/2025/10/15/oig-releases-third-quarter-report-on-city-fraud-and-misconduct/
Mayor Johnson Should Fire His Top Adviser, Chicago Inspector General Says By Fran Spielman — October 15, 2025 — Chicago Sun-Times
https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2025/10/15/city-inspector-general-deborah-witzburg-brandon-johnson-top-adviser-jason-lee-investigation
Senior Advisor to Brandon Johnson Voted in Texas This November, Raising Questions About Residency By Austin Berg — December 6, 2024 — Illinois Policy Institute
https://illinoispolicy.org/senior-advisor-to-brandon-johnson-voted-in-texas-this-november-raising-questions-about-residency/
City Hall Insiders Gave Campaign Money to Mayoral Aide’s Mother, a Member of Congress from Texas By Tim Novak and Robert Herguth — January 25, 2024 — Chicago Sun-Times
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2024/1/25/24048370/sheila-jackson-lee-jason-brandon-johnson-houston-campaign-fundraiser
