Self-proclaimed Democratic 'super mayor' ordered to court as scandal-plagued tenure unravels
Former Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard, a Democrat, has been ordered to appear for a contempt hearing after she did not turn over public records from her time in office, according to WGN 9.
The Edgar County Watchdogs Inc. sued the Village of Dolton and the former mayor for failing to produce financial records after the administration allegedly disregarded Freedom of Information Act requests earlier this year.
"The former mayor is about to find out if losing an election is enough to escape contempt of court," Edward "Coach" Weinhaus, attorney for Edgar County Watchdogs, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Henyard was previously held in contempt of court after she failed to turn over records from her time in office, directly dismissing state transparency laws for elected officials, WGN 9 reported.
"The massive public exposure given to the defendant that has brought Illinois corruption into the national public spotlight needs to be addressed immediately to save further harm to the state's reputation," the complaint reportedly read.
In a hearing last week, Henyard reportedly told the judge she was the "face" of the village but was not tasked with recordkeeping, according to WGN 9.
Henyard and the attorneys representing the Village of Dolton did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Last month, Jason House was sworn in as the newly elected mayor of Dolton, ending Henyard's tumultuous time in office. Henyard was also defeated by Illinois state Sen. Napoleon Harris in her bid for re-election as Thornton Township supervisor.
Henyard made national headlines in April 2024 after the FBI served subpoenas at Dolton Village Hall following corruption allegations against local officials, according to FOX 32 Chicago.
While Henyard was not charged, village trustees voted to hire former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to lead an investigation into her administration, with the town meeting descending into chaos as supporters of Henyard clashed with her opponents following the decision.
Lightfoot reportedly discovered the village's general fund fell from its initial $5.6 million balance to a $3.6 million deficit, with the local government's credit card charges adding up to over $779,000 in 2023.
In February, a federal subpoena was issued, coinciding with the day Henyard was defeated in the mayoral primary, FOX 32 reported. The filing relates to a development project involving land reportedly owned by Henyard's boyfriend.
Henyard is reportedly scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani's other baggage — bringing a socialist army to City Hall
Zohran Mamdani may be a lightweight in his own right, but as mayor he'd bring an entire extremist movement along with him to City Hall, with dire consequences for the city. Mamdani can hedge and haw all he likes, but he's the face of a truly radical movement, the Democratic Socialists of America — which boasts of being truly anti-capitalist and indeed looking to 'seize the means of production,' which is as Marxist as anyone could ask. Zohran himself just a few years ago lectured about how socialists needed to be honest about these goals; that he's changed his tune merely means he's now more interested in winning elections. Advertisement After all, this is a guy who's said that identifying himself as African-American just because he was born in Uganda would be fundamentally 'misleading' — but did just that when applying to Columbia. As mayor, he would at the very least bring a host of fellow DSA believers to the highest reaches of city government. And the DSA is a lot harder left than the Working Families Party, which has always been mainly a vehicle for unions and other 'progressive' special interests to boost their influence. Advertisement The DSA's constitution is frank about the party's beliefs: 'We reject an economic order based on private profit'; it seeks a 'social order based on popular control of resources and production' and 'economic planning.' As Santiago Vidal Calvo notes for The Post, these ideas have wrought disaster wherever tried — impoverishing society as a whole even as the socialist elite prospers. Already, ex-Rep. Jamaal Bowman is rumored as Mamdani's pick for schools chancellor. As an 'educator,' Bowman stood four-square against standards and rigor, and for DEI nonsense. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Advertisement Imagine cop-hating Queens City Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán — an early Mamdani supporter — replacing Jessica Tisch as police commissioner. Or other lefty radicals running the Department of Finance and the Economic Development Corp. The DSA has been leveraging its way to power ever since its first marque triumph: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's ouster of Queens boss Joe Crowley, then the No. 4 House Democrat, in the 2019 primary. Advertisement Now, exploiting the city's ridiculous public-campaign-finance system and now the ranked-choice primary-voting rules as well as the establishment's social-media cluelessness, it's poised to seize City Hall behind Mamdani's disarming charm and puppy-dog head tilt. Beware: Even if the voters fend off this takeover attempt, the DSA will keep on pushing. Everyone else in local politics needs to get serious about not just beating Mamdani now, but treating all Democratic Socialists as completely toxic.
Politico
3 hours ago
- Politico
Musk has gone 'off the rails," Trump says
'By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,' Musk wrote. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' Trump clearly didn't agree with Musk on the need for another political party. 'The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS,' Trump wrote in his Truth Social post, 'and we have enough of that with the Radical Left Democrats, who have lost their confidence and their minds! Republicans, on the other hand, are a smooth running 'machine,' that just passed the biggest Bill of its kind in the History of our Country.' Trump spent the lion's share of his message attributing Musk's change of heart toward him to his own financial interests. 'It is a Great Bill but, unfortunately for Elon, it eliminates the ridiculous Electric Vehicle (EV) Mandate, which would have forced everyone to buy an Electric Car in a short period of time. I have been strongly opposed to that from the very beginning,' Trump said. Trump, in June, had offered a similar complaint about Musk: 'Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!' Musk, who was brought in to the Trump administration early on to improve the functioning of the federal government, has been arguing that the megabill, which Trump signed Friday, is a disaster. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive,' he wrote June 28 on X. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' Two days later, he threatened to create his own party. 'Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,' he said.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Republican who ran for NYC mayor backs Eric Adams, urges Trump to step in to help clear slate
A Republican who ran for mayor in 2021 is now throwing his support behind incumbent Eric Adams — as he urged President Trump to step in to help on Sunday. Fernando Mateo, who is a spokesman for the United Bodegas of America, is asking the commander-in-chief to convince Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa to drop out as this year's GOP candidate to get Adams to appear on the Republican Party line. 'Of course, we need the president's help, ' Mateo said on WABC's 770 the 'Cats Roundtable' program with host John Catsimatidis. 'We need the President to basically tell Curtis Sliwa, 'Hey, drop out of the race. Give that line to Eric Adams.' 5 Fernando Mateo is asking Curtis Sliwa to drop out as this year's GOP candidate to get Adams to appear on the Republican Party line. Michael Nigro Adams, a Democrat, didn't run in his party's primary last month but is pursuing re-election as an independent. He'll face an uphill battle in the deeply blue city against Democratic Party nominee Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist. Also appearing on a minor party line is Democrat Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who lost to Mamdani in the primary. Mateo said Cuomo could only be a 'spoiler' in November. 'We need to make sure that Eric wins. Andrew Cuomo should not be on the ballot,' Mateo said. 5 'Of course, we need the president's help, ' Mateo said on WABC's 770 the 'Cats Roundtable' program with host John Catsimatidis. REUTERS 'He's a divider. He's a hater,' he added. 'He is someone that hates New York and loves himself. If [Cuomo and Sliwa] were to drop out, and Eric Adams had the support of every New Yorker, there's no way that we could lose.' Mateo lost to GOP hopeful Sliwa by a resounding 40 percentage points four years ago, before Sliwa lost the general election to Adams. Sliwa said he isn't going anywhere. 5 Adams, a Democrat, didn't run in his party's primary last month but is pursuing re-election as an independent. Matthew McDermott 'I crushed Mateo in the Republican primary four years ago. He hasn't been seen with a Republican since,' Sliwa quipped. 'It's over. I'm on the ballot. There's no way to get me out.' Adams is unpopular with Republicans as he is with Democrats, Sliwa said, citing polling consistently showing the mayor's high negative ratings. Catsimatidis, the billionaire WABC owner, is pushing Adams' re-election bid as an independent. He's hosted fundraisers and is trying to woo Republican support despite the fact that he has employed Sliwa as one of his radio hosts. 5 Fernando Mateo (left), spokesman for United Bodegas of America, appears at an anti-Mamdani rally with John Catsimatidis on June 30, 2025. Matthew McDermott He had no comment when asked if he's spoken to Trump about backing Adams. Meanwhile, former Gov. David Paterson said Mamdani, as the Democratic nominee, will be 'hard to beat' in the general election and likened his rise as a left wing version of President Trump. 'The support that Mamdani is receiving … the number of people he's registering, the number of people who go to his rallies … if I blinked my eyes 10 years ago, there was another person who was able to do that, and his name is Donald Trump, whose political ideology is the polar opposite of what Mamdani's might be,' Paterson said in a different segment of WABC's the 'Cats Roundtable.' 5 Former Gov. David Paterson said Mamdani, as the Democratic nominee, will be 'hard to beat' in the general election. Matthew McDermott 'I don't know to what extent Mamdani is going to attack his opponent in the election, but it gives him a real plurality now that's going to be hard to beat … He is going to be a difficult candidate to beat.' Paterson, who backed Cuomo in the Democratic primary, said he's sticking with the ex-governor as the best choice to stop Mamdani.
