Did The Chicago DA Violate State Law In Erasing Smollett Prosecution Records? The Chicago DA's Office expunged all State records of the Smollett prosecution. Did Ms. Foxx violate  the Illinois State State Records Act (5 ILCS 160) in doing so? How did she get permission from the Commission to expunge these records so quickly?  I was the electronic records management administrator for my local DA for 16 years. We also stored the physical "hard copy" records for decades worth of prosecutions.   What Foxx did was incredible. Can the Feds ding her for violating State laws? Or perhaps Obstruction of Justice would be more appropriate ... just like Mueller's investigation of POTUS!   The Records Management Section of the Illinois State Archives is responsible for assisting state and local government agencies with the disposal of records. In Illinois, no public record may be disposed of without the approval of the appropriate records commission. From the Records Management Reference Manual For Illinois State Government Agencies , page 1: The Illinois State Records Act (5 ILCS 160) (hereafter referred to as the Act) covers many areas of records management. The full text of this Act is located in the Appendices. The Act recognizes two record retention problem areas.   The first problem area is to avoid the accidental destruction of any record. The second problem area is to prevent the early destruction of State records. Both can result in disruption to the State’s business by:   • Causing interruption to essential services; • Causing accountability problems in the expenditure of public funds; and • Causing the destruction of records with historic value.   The Act places three major responsibilities on each State agency: 1) No record may be destroyed without the approval of the Illinois State Records Commission. 2) Each agency head must establish and maintain an active and continuing program of lifecycle management for the records managed by their agency. 3) The Act authorizes the Illinois Secretary of State to provide records management expertise and technological assistance to state agencies. This is done through the Illinois State Archives, Records Management Section, State Records Management Unit (hereafter referred to as the Unit).   The primary purpose of the Unit is to assist State agencies in establishing and maintaining a comprehensive records management program that fully complies with the Act and the regulations of the State Records Commission.   Then on page 5:   Records Retention Schedule "Section 18 of the Act requires the agency head to submit to the State Records Commission (hereafter referred to as the Commission) lists or schedules of records in their custody that the agency wants to dispose of or transfer to the State Records Center or the Illinois State  Archives. The function of the Commission is to review the lists to determine what records may be disposed of and when. Records identified for destruction or transfer to either the State Records Center or Archives are submitted to the Commission on a Records Retention Schedule (Application for Authority to Dispose of State Records), hereafter referred to as Schedule/Application."