Sanford fears ‘kangaroo court’

Gov. Mark Sanford said a state ethics panel risks the impartiality of its report if it is given to lawmakers early — and threatened legal action to prevent its release.

Sanford said the preliminary report would not include his defense, and lawmakers would use its conclusions to justify Sanford’s impeachment. To turn over a draft of the report to lawmakers, Sanford said, threatens to turn the process into a “kangaroo court.”

State Ethics Commission officials challenged Sanford’s legal interpretation, and said the governor would have every opportunity to defend himself.

And pressure continued to build on the governor Thursday, as two-thirds — 31 of 46 members — of the state Republican Party leadership voted to ask for his resignation. In July, the group had merely censured him for leaving the state for a secret five-day trip to Argentina after which he later admitted an extramarital affair.

“As an Executive Committee, we are not suggesting that you should or should not be impeached,” chairwoman Karen Floyd wrote in a letter to Sanford. “Our state simply cannot wait until it concludes before moving forward.”

Earlier this week, House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, and most House Republicans asked Sanford to resign.

Sanford, as he has said for weeks, has no plans to resign.

The S.C. GOP should not rush to a political judgment before all the facts are in, Sanford said, and any legal investigation needs to be fair.

“It is not OK to short-circuit an ethics process to try and get the result you want,” Sanford said. “If you go this route, then you’re setting up a kangaroo court.”

Sanford’s complaint is that lawmakers are seeking access to an early version of the report that lays out the facts, similar to an indictment in a criminal trial. State law says only the attorney general and other prosecutors can see the early report, said Sanford attorney Butch Bowers.

Typically, the early report is only released once the Ethics Commission hears evidence from all sides and votes on whether a criminal, ethical or no violation has occurred. The investigation is expected to take up to eight weeks, and an early report would be issued sometime before then.

Releasing the early report could compromise his impeachment hearing, Sanford said, because it would not contain the governor’s defense. Bowers said Sanford will pursue legal action to prevent the report’s release.

“I’ll use every tool in the tool box,” Sanford said.

But Herbert Hayden, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, disagreed with Sanford’s argument.

“That is just totally untrue to say that they’re not going to have a chance to present their case,” Hayden said, adding Sanford is clouding the issue.

But Hayden said that once the House opens impeachment hearings, it becomes a prosecutorial body and can have access to Ethics Commission reports.

“They have a different interpretation of the law,” Hayden said.

Legal experts have noted that lawmakers determine impeachment standards, and lawmakers said the Ethics Commission investigation is separate from impeachment.

Some lawmakers have said Sanford committed “serious misconduct” — the S.C. Constitution standard for impeachment — when he secretly left the state for five days.

Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.