When Jack Ryan’s campaign for an open United States Senate seat in Illinois began in 2003, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and WLS-TV, the local ABC affiliate, sought to have his records released. Both Jeri and Jack agreed to make public their divorce records, but not their custody records, saying the latter’s release could be harmful to their son.
On June 18, 2004, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider agreed to release the custody files. The decision went against both parents’ direct requests and reversed the decision to seal the papers in the child’s best interest. It was revealed that six years earlier, Jeri accused Jack of asking her to perform sexual acts with him in public and in sex clubs in New York, New Orleans and Paris. Jeri described one venue as “a bizarre club with cages, whips, and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling.” Jack denied the allegations.
Although Jeri only made a brief statement, and refused to comment on the matter during the campaign, the disclosure led Jack to withdraw his candidacy; his main opponent, Barack Obama, then won the 2004 United States Senate election in Illinois, flipping the Senate seat from Republican to Democratic.
I know the story...the GOP then wanted Mike Ditka to run for the seat and he would’ve been a shoe-in to win- it probably would not have been close....Ditka declined and the GOP had to search for another candidate (a black guy whose name i don’t remember)...
The irony is Ditka was an out spoken obama hater years later- but he could’ve prevented it all had he accepted the GOP’s invite to run as their candidate.
It was David Axelrod who secretly arranged to Ryan’s custody records released.
Totally corrupt judge and Democrat machine.
They all still have a huge debt to pay.