Round and round they go.

In a breaking new development, The Daily Herald reports that Duckworth still has not succeeded in settling her VA whistleblower retaliation lawsuit.

The plaintiffs – VA employees who were allegedly humiliated and harassed by Duckworth after they blew the whistle on veteran abuse, are refusing to agree that there was no wrongdoing by the Blagojevich appointee.

Did Duckworth and her legal team lie about the terms of the settlement yet again?

As a reminder, The Herald previously reported that the attorney general’s office lowballed the actual taxpayer cost of the hush money by about $14,000:

  • The Original Settlement Offer Was Reported To Be Around $26,000, But Plaintiffs Butler And Goins Said It Was Closer To $40,000. “The original settlement offer was reported to be around $26,000, with the attorney general’s office paying for the employees’ attorney fees and other court costs. But Butler and Goins said the offer in actuality was more like $40,000, with $21,000 of that sum paying for attorney’s fees and another $9,000 provided to each plaintiff.” (Kerry Lester, “Women Reject Settlement In Duckworth Workplace Retaliation Lawsuit,” The Daily Herald, 7/27/16)

Duckworth’s legal team then claimed that the plaintiffs could not back out even if they refused to sign the paperwork:

"We worked with a judge on June 24 and reached a final settlement. It’s typical practice that after finalizing a settlement, the parties sign our standard form. If a plaintiff declines to sign the form, that does not change whether the agreement is final," spokeswoman Maura Possley said in an email.

If that’s the case, why haven’t Duckworth and the whistleblowers she allegedly retaliated against reached an agreement more than a week past their deadline?

Read more from The Daily Herald about Tammy Duckworth’s continued legal troubles:

Lester: New sticking points in Duckworth workplace suit

The Daily Herald

By Kerry Lester

September 1, 2016

http://bit.ly/2bXGnWi

More than a week past their deadline, parties in the workplace harassment suit against U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates still haven’t reached an agreement. What’s the holdup?

Sources involved with the case tell me plaintiffs Christine Butler and Denise Goins, workers in the downstate Anna Veterans’ Home, have two sticking points.

They don’t want to agree there was no wrongdoing by Duckworth in the case stemming from her time heading the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and they want more than the reported $26,000 compensation in an earlier agreement.

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