The federal corruption trial for a former Republican state lawmaker-turned-third-party candidate for governor was supposed to begin MONDAY morning in Springfield.
But Capitol News Illinois reports that in a bizarre turn of events, former GOP State Senator Sam McCann suddenly ditched his court-appointed attorney in order to represent himself.
McCann was indicted in early 2021 on seven counts of fraud and one count each of money laundering and tax evasion for allegedly misusing more than 200-thousand dollars in campaign funds beginning in 2015.
McCann has gone through four other court-appointed attorneys and public defenders and says he’s better off representing himself than his latest lawyers, who’ve been on the case since January.
Early on after his indictment, McCann claimed he was unemployed and had only $500 dollars in a checking account while facing 100 times more than that in debt.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless told McCann it was – quote – “unwise” to represent himself, but still granted his eleventh-hour request to delay trial, now rescheduled for early February