Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. files for divorce

CHICAGO – Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. filed for divorce Monday from former Alderman Sandi Jackson, according to Cook County court records.

Jackson Jr., 51, cited in the filing irreconcilable differences after 25 years of marriage. He requests that the couple’s two children, age 16 and 12, “reside with him, subject to Sandi’s exercise of reasonable parenting time.”

His attorney could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

The Jacksons were a Democratic power couple until being brought down by a federal investigation that led to convictions and prison time for both.

He was found guilty of looting about $750,000 from his federal campaign treasury, spending the money on vacations, furs, celebrity memorabilia and two mounted elk heads, among other things.

Sandi Jackson left a federal prison camp in West Virginia in September, where she had been serving a one-year sentence for filing false income tax returns. She began her prison sentence after her husband finished serving 22 months of a 30-month sentence.

Jackson Jr. was in Congress from 1995 until he quit in 2012 amid the criminal investigation and treatment for bipolar disorder and depression. He is the son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Sandi Jackson was Chicago’s 7th Ward alderman from 2007 until she resigned in 2013.