Embattled Richland prosecutor Johnson rolls the dice, seeks re-election

His campaign caught in a firestorm over his spending and targeted by federal and state investigators, Fifth Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson filed Friday for a third four-year term in office.

"We've been doing good work and helping a lot of people," Johnson, 47, told reporters just after he filed to run for re-election at the S.C. Election Commission in downtown Columbia. "Everything I said I was going to do, I've done."

The June Democratic primary will determine "whether people approve of the work we've been doing," Johnson said. "We've been serving citizens, and we've made the office more open."

Johnson's payment of the $5,640 filing fee, minutes before the Friday noon deadline, ended weeks of speculation about whether the Democrat would seek re-election in the wake of widely publicized disclosures about questionable spending by his office and law enforcement investigations into his stewardship of millions of dollars in public money since 2011.

Johnson will face Byron Gipson, a Columbia defense lawyer, in June's Democratic primary. Gipson filed earlier this week after questions about Johnson's spending escalated and the incumbent's support began to erode. The Democratic primary is June 12. The winner of that contest does not face any announced opposition in November's general election.

"I would have supported Dan again, but I could not do that," said S.C. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who until recently was a fundraiser for Johnson but now backs Gipson.

As solicitor, Johnson is chief law enforcement officer in Kershaw and and Richland counties, overseeing criminal prosecutions. He has a staff of roughly 140 and is paid $141,300 a year.

Johnson largely has been unavailable to comment on his office's spending.

However, Friday Johnson said:

▪ He has hired an accountant, whom he did not identify, to look into his office's finances and spending. Johnson said the solicitor's office was paying for the accountant. "Do you think I have the kind of money to pay for the accountant? ... You may not know this, but I came from nothing. I still have a $77,000 student loan."

▪ Johnson said he won't respond to specific questions about his spending until that audit is completed. "When the accountant gets to the bottom of it, I'm going to release it. ... I want to do it all at one time."

▪ Johnson appeared to blame others for questions about his spending. "If I could have gotten the county to give us an accountant from the beginning — some bow tie-wearing guy — I would have done it. But we don't have that."

▪ Asked why trips to Las Vegas and the Galapagos Islands were on his office credit cards, Johnson declined to answer. Records show Johnson made repeated trips, charged on his office credit card, to casino complexes in Las Vegas and other cities, and traveled to the Galapagos in 2016 and 2017.

▪ Nicole Holland, director of communications, remains at the solicitor's office. However, Holland's credit card privileges have been suspended during an internal investigation into tens of thousands of dollars' worth of questionable purchases that she has made on office credit cards in recent years.

Johnson also said he has known his primary opponent, Gipson, for 20 years.

"We went to law school together," Johnson said. "He's a good dude."

Public records from Johnson's office, including canceled checks and itemized credit card statements, show the prosecutor has spent weeks traveling the country and abroad, including taking luxury limousines to visit casino complexes. Johnson also threw expensive office parties, spent tens of thousands of dollars on perks for his staff and wrote numerous checks for "cash" to staff members.

Some 40,000 records of spending by the 5th Circuit solicitor's office from 2011 to November 2017 were obtained by a Columbia nonprofit, Public Access to Public Records. The group, known as PAPR, has published about 20,000 pages online and slowly is releasing the rest, after removing some details including Social Security and credit card numbers.

However, Johnson said the accountant he has retained should clear things up. "I have to get to the bottom of it. I've got to figure out what's going on and make it right if it's not right."

Johnson gave no timetable for when the accountant's report would be completed.

"If we've missed some stuff, if our paperwork isn't right, we need to get it right," Johnson said, adding voters will decide his future. "If people don't want me around anymore, then I won't be."

This story was originally published March 30, 2018 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Embattled Richland prosecutor Johnson rolls the dice, seeks re-election."