Pascoe: Wilson tried to delay, obstruct, discredit State House probe

One of the most contentious legal firestorms in recent state history got hotter Friday when special prosecutor David Pascoe filed a reply to Attorney General Alan Wilson in the S.C. Supreme Court in the ongoing battle over the fate of an investigation into public corruption in the Legislature.

Pascoe filed his 19-page reply, which included pages of additional exhibits, shortly before noon Friday.

“His office has continued to jeopardize the integrity of this investigation by attempting to turn a criminal investigation into a political game,” Pascoe wrote, alleging that Wilson has taken “extraordinary action ... to frustrate the underlying investigation.”

Specifically, Pascoe wrote:

▪ For 10 months, from October 2014 to July 2015, before Pascoe took over the case, Wilson’s office claimed it was actively investigating the allegations of corruption in the Legislature but was apparently doing nothing.

▪ An attorney from Wilson’s office discussed the case with a defense attorney representing one of the potential targets in the investigation, even though Wilson and his office were recused from the case because Wilson declared he had a conflict of interest.

▪  Robert Bogan, a former chief (supervising prosecutor) of the State Grand Jury whom Pascoe had asked to go by the Attorney General’s office to pick up a form to initiate a State Grand Jury proceeding, was told in February by a SLED agent in the attorney general’s office that “the Attorney General doesn’t think it’s an appropriate State Grand Jury case.”

▪ In March, Wilson’s office tried to learn about the progress of the investigation, but the request was rejected by the circuit judge supervising the involvement of the State Grand Jury in the probe. “Judge (Clifton) Newman denied the Attorney General’s request to review the case initiation,” wrote Pascoe. A “case initiation” is a probable cause summary of evidence signed by Pascoe and State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel that convinced Newman to activate the State Grand Jury.

That kind of resistance from the attorney general’s office has stymied his investigation into public corruption and “illustrates the Attorney General’s continued interference in this matter,” Pascoe wrote.

The Supreme Court now will decide when and if to hold a public hearing on that matter. Or, the high court could choose to issue an opinion without a public hearing.

Wilson is asking the court to throw out Pascoe’s complaint and allow Wilson to fire Pascoe.

“This is a glorified dispute between office holders within a separate branch of government,” Wilson wrote in his filing last week. “The court should not interject itself into this dispute ...”

At issue is whether it is Pascoe or Wilson who has the authority to initiate a State Grand Jury probe, with the enhanced investigative powers a State Grand Jury has.

Wilson claims state law gives him as attorney general the sole right, in tandem with the SLED chief, to approve a State Grand Jury investigation. Pascoe claims that Wilson and his office have recused themselves from the investigation because of conflicts, and delegated the State Grand Jury authority to Pascoe.

KEEL WEIGHS IN

To bolster his case, Pascoe included a five-page affidavit from Keel.

In the affidavit, Keel writes that for almost a year, from July 2015 to March of this year, he believed that the attorney general’s office had delegated all prosecutorial authority in the case to Pascoe, including the ability to activate a State Grand Jury. Keel said he based his conclusion on letters from the attorney general’s office to him and Pascoe.

“I believed that the entire Attorney General’s office had been recused on this matter in accordance with the (attorney general’s office) July 17, 2015 letter,” Keel wrote.

Wilson, in his filing with the court, asserts that only he, not his office, is recused and that Pascoe failed to go through his office to activate the grand jury.

Pascoe also writes that Wilson is continuing “to violate the integrity of this investigation” by making attacks “personally and professionally” upon Pascoe.

Wilson’s “use of press conferences, press releases, and legal filings to discredit and impugn Solicitors, law enforcement, and the Courts should have no place in our legal system,” Pascoe wrote. It was a reference to, among other things, a March 30 press conference in which Wilson lambasted Pascoe’s reputation and said the probe and Pascoe were “tainted.”

Pascoe also cited the recent attempt by a top aide to Wilson, Adam Piper, to plot a strategy with the S.C. Republican Party to discredit Pascoe.

A ‘DESIGNEE’?

Last year, Wilson and his office gave Pascoe authority to act as a special prosecutor on behalf of the attorney general’s office, Pascoe wrote, because Wilson clearly had a conflict with subjects of a SLED investigation into possible corruption in the Legislature.

Wilson’s recusal is “full, final, and unambiguous,” Pascoe wrote, saying that he “was granted authority by the Attorney General’s office to make all prosecutorial decisions in this matter which would include the authority to empanel a State Grand Jury.”

In his filing, Wilson said, “A State Grand Jury may be initiated only by the Attorney General and the Chief of SLED. There can be no ‘designees’ of these officials.”

Wilson acknowledged that one of his top deputies, John McIntosh, had written Keel on July 17, 2015, and told Keel that “the Attorney General recused this office” from investigating any potential targets of the SLED investigation.

However, in his filing, Wilson said in making that assertion, McIntosh had “misspoke” because the attorney general’s office “cannot legally be recused.”

“This phraseology by Chief Deputy McIntosh creates no ‘right’ in Solicitor Pascoe to initiate a State Grand Jury,” Wilson wrote.

Wilson, whose office notified Pascoe on March 28 that he was terminated as special prosecutor, asserted that a solicitor “serves at the ‘pleasure’ of the Attorney General and can have no expectation of continuing in this matter.”

Pascoe said in his reply that he will not step down unless a court tells him to step down.

In his April 8 filing, unsealed by the court Thursday after a request from The State newspaper’s attorney, Wilson says he wants the case to go forward and notes he had designated 5th Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson to take Pascoe’s place. Johnson has told Wilson’s office that he will wait for the Supreme Court to decide the case before accepting the post.

DID NOTHING?

In mid-2014, Wilson appointed Pascoe to be a special prosecutor to handle public corruption allegations against former House Speaker Bobby Harrell.

The allegations were in a 42-page confidential SLED report that also contained the names of other House members who might be additional subjects of the public corruption investigation. Those pages are what Pascoe has been working from.

In October 2014, Pascoe forced Harrell to plead guilty to misuse of campaign funds and resign from office.

That same month, Wilson asked McIntosh to take over the investigation.

But for the next 10 months, McIntosh apparently did nothing to advance the probe, Pascoe wrote in his Friday filing.

“No one from the Attorney General’s office ever seriously looked into this matter,” Pascoe wrote.

In his letter to McIntosh, Pascoe said the Attorney General’s communications with defense attorneys causes his concern that “the Attorney General’s office continues to work behind the scenes in an investigation for which you claim a conflict of interest.”

POLITICAL TIES

Meanwhile, The State newspaper disclosed this week the names of two people likely causing Wilson’s conflict: longtime political allies Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Richland, and his father, Richard Quinn, who owns Richard Quinn & Associates.

Wilson has paid the political consulting firm more than $220,000 over the years to win the office of attorney general in 2010 and 2014.

The State newspaper confirmed the names because reporters and editors reviewed unredacted versions of the eight pages and portions of two other pages that were blacked out in the 42-page SLED report that was issued in December 2013.

In his affidavit, SLED Chief Keel said that, however the justices rule, the ongoing investigation should not be scuttled.

“I ask only that SLED and the State Grand Jury be allowed to continue the investigation into this matter,” Keel wrote.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Pascoe: Wilson tried to delay, obstruct, discredit State House probe."