Legal counsel for Illinois Comptroller's Office fired after allegedly sending anti-Semitic messages

CHICAGO - The legal counsel for the Illinois Comptroller's Office has been fired after allegedly sending anti-Semitic direct messages on Instagram.

According to the Illinois Comptroller's Office, the Instagram exchange, which reportedly contained anti-Semitic language and hate speech, was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, midday Thursday.

The office was alerted of the post around 12:30 p.m. and contacted the employee at 2 p.m. The employee allegedly admitted to at least some of the posts and was immediately fired.

According to Reuters, the employee fired is legal counsel Sarah Chowdhury, who made the comments in private direct messages with an Instagram account called Big Law Boiz.

"All you zionists will pay" and "Hitler should have eradicated all of you," were among the remarks she allegedly made in the exchange, according to Reuters.

A screenshot of other messages she allegedly sent, which the Big Law Boiz account made public earlier Thursday, included, "Hopefully someone sends you anthrax or poison and you die a slow terrible death" and "Burn in hell."

Chowdhury had been with the comptroller’s office for three years, handling research and legal memos, a comptroller spokesperson said.

Chowdhury was also the president of the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago and her profile has since been removed from the association's website.

SABA-Chicago released the following statement:

"The South Asian Bar Association of Chicago stands against hate, bigotry and bias in any form. Today, our board was made aware of antisemitic comments made by SABA Chicago's President toward the Jewish community through her personal social media account. Immediately upon learning of these statements, her role as president and membership in SABA-Chicago were terminated. We are deeply saddened and horrified by her words and their impact on our friends, families, and colleagues, and apologize for any harm they may have caused. Her words are not and will never be reflective of SABA Chicago. To be clear, SABA Chicago condemns such hateful rhetoric and is committed to supporting our communities and all those impacted by hate. We will not tolerate such behavior by any of our members.

As our nation responds to the rising hate violence we have seen at home, we endeavor to work together with other professional organizations to combat hate in all its forms—whether anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, anti-Muslim, white supremacy, or any other bigotry--and will always denounce such acts unequivocally and without qualification.

Our board, along with our newly installed President Maliha Siddiqui, remains committed to working with our partners in the legal community and beyond to ensure hate has no place in our profession or society."

This incident comes as crimes and threats against Jews and Muslims are reportedly on the rise.

Last week, a Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death in Plainfield Township. This week, a man in DuPage County was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill two Muslim men. And a woman in Portage Park told police that someone replaced an Israeli flag from her yard with a Palestinian flag.

Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.