FBI interviewing more people in special prosecutor Pascoe’s SC corruption probe
FBI agents are busy interviewing Columbia-area politicians and their associates as part of the state’s ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in the S.C. General Assembly, according to multiple sources familiar with the probe.
FBI agents have been working alongside State Law Enforcement Division agents in interviewing subjects, the sources said.
Two veteran federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Greenville office, Lance Crick and William Watkins, have been assigned to the case, the sources said.
Crick declined comment on Monday. “As a matter of policy, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s office make it a practice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, who is the special prosecutor in the case, also declined comment.
In October 2014, former S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell pleaded guilty to misusing campaign money. In a plea agreement, he promised to cooperate in any future state or federal criminal investigations. It was not clear at that time that the FBI was seriously involved.
Harrell was the first person to be indicted by Pascoe in what has turned into a three-year investigation into public corruption in the Legislature. Pascoe’s investigation has been stalled several times by legal actions designed to shut him down or limit his scope. But he has prevailed and kept going.
Pascoe’s investigation is now believed to focus on South Carolina’s pre-eminent political consultant firm, Richard Quinn & Associates, and its relationships with lawmakers, lobbyists, state agencies and private corporations. Last month, Pascoe won a court decision to keep and study a trove of electronic and paper data obtained from a surprise March raid on Quinn’s offices.
Debbie Barbier, Richard Quinn’s lawyer, had this to say Monday when asked about FBI involvement: “Richard Quinn has not broken any state or federal law.”
Barbier added, “My client and his family are victims of state politicians seeking to further their own political careers and agendas. As a former (federal) prosecutor, it is outrageous to me that a confidential statewide grand jury is constantly being illegally leaked to the public.” She would not elaborate.
Since last December, three other lawmakers have been indicted on various misconduct charges: Rep. James Merrill, R-Berkeley; Sen. John Courson, R-Richland; and Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Lexington.
John Crangle, a lawyer who wrote a book about Lost Trust, a major legislative public corruption scandal of the 1990s, said Monday federal involvement may signify important developments in the works.
“This is a very significant development,” Crangle said.
That’s because when it comes to potential corruption, federal authorities have more resources and much stronger and varied laws to work with than the relatively weak and limited patchwork of state laws, Crangle said.
Those federal assets include:
▪ More agents. Up to now, Pascoe is believed to have at most about nine State Law Enforcement Division agents working for him. At the time of Lost Trust, Crangle said, the FBI deployed more than 70 agents to South Carolina.
▪ Laws such as racketeering statutes that allow the federal government to prosecute certain criminal conspiracies, and the Hobbs Act, which prohibits the use of one’s public office for personal gain. The feds used the Hobbs Act extensively in the 1990s Lost Trust probe in which 17 lawmakers were ultimately convicted, Crangle said.
▪ Money laundering statutes as well as laws designed to detect and monitor bank deposits of $10,000 or more.
▪ Mail and wire fraud statutes, which cover any Internet or U.S. mail communications in which a crime is discussed.
▪ Federal income tax laws.
This past wast weekend, The Charleston Post & Courier wrote that the FBI has been investigating the firing of former S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control executive Catherine Templeton from the S.C. Ports Authority. She was quoted by the newspaper as saying that her firing was connected to her raising questions about the approximately $1 million per year Quinn and other consultants were getting paid by the Ports Authority.
On Monday, Templeton, a Republican candidate challenging incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster, sent an email blast to supporters with an Internet link to the Post & Courier story.
In the email blast, Templeton described herself as a “conservative outsider” fighting “the corrupt Good Ol’ Boy system in Columbia. They tried to silence her. But it didn’t work then and it won’t work now.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2017 at 7:22 PM with the headline "FBI interviewing more people in special prosecutor Pascoe’s SC corruption probe."