Attorney General Wilson responds to top aide’s smear effort

Editor's note: Shortly before 10 pm Tuesday, after The State posted this story on its Web page, Wilson's press secretary emailed The State this statement:



 "As Mr. Piper stated earlier I was unaware of his email exchange with Mr. Moore."When I learned of the email, I asked Mr. Piper to please refrain from sending emails or texts on matters regarding the office, even to trusted friends on his own time. "All future discussions involving Mr. Pascoe's actions should take place in a court of law."

 End of statement

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A day after disclosures that one of Attorney General Alan Wilson’s top aides sent an email to the S.C. Republican Party in which the aide proposed to use the party to initiate a smear campaign against Wilson’s special prosecutor, Wilson remained silent.

But some observers say Wilson should, at the least, disassociate himself from an effort by aide Adam Piper to enlist the Republican Party in trying to destroy the reputation of special prosecutor David Pascoe. Others, saying Piper’s actions interfere with an ongoing investigation, think Wilson should discipline or fire Piper to show the attorney general’s office is unbiased.

Pascoe was hand-picked by Wilson to investigate public corruption in the General Assembly.

“I don’t see why the attorney general would want someone on his staff who would write an email like that, when the attorney general’s responsibility is to be a minister of justice, and this is, obviously, written by somebody who is a political hatchet man,” said Greg Adams, ethics professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Moreover, Adams said, lawyers’ rules of professional conduct say that a lawyer, or someone who is employed by the lawyer, should not make out-of-court statements that could prejudice a future trial.

“Trying to have a prosecutor smeared ... would, certainly, fit within that prohibition,” Adams said.

On Monday, an email from Piper to S.C. Republican Party chair Matt Moore was leaked to both The State and The (Charleston) Post & Courier.

In the email, Piper – who makes $80,801 a year and is one of Wilson’s top aides – asked if the party could find ways to smear Pascoe personally, politically and professionally.

“If there is a way for the party to reveal David Pascoe is Dick Harpootlian’s Mini-Me/ Sock-Puppet/ Clone, it would be beneficial for years to come for the party,” wrote Piper, deputy chief of staff, who also called Pascoe a “Democrat hack.”

Moore rebuffed Piper’s smear attempt, saying on Monday it was improper for the party to become involved in a criminal investigation.

Efforts to reach Piper for comment Monday evening were unsuccessful. In an interview, Piper on Monday characterized the email as “thinking out loud with an old, very good friend. ... There was no plot, no scheme.”

On Tuesday, Wilson did not respond to a State newspaper query asking if he knew about Piper’s email in advance of it being sent. The query also asked Wilson if he was taking any action concerning Piper.

Others also wondered Tuesday what action Wilson might take concerning Piper. They included John Crangle and Ashley Landess, who pushed Wilson several years ago to begin investigating public corruption in the General Assembly.

Crangle’s and Landess’s efforts helped lead to the 2014 guilty pleas and resignation of former S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell as well as Pascoe’s current investigation.

Wilson “would be justified in terminating the guy,” said Crangle, who has for years studied the ethics of the General Assembly and is president of Common Cause of South Carolina.

“The Attorney General should be perceived as being above partisan politics, but the people in his office are wallowing in partisan politics,” Crangle said. “Wilson should issue a statement saying he is not going to tolerate such activity, and anyone who does it is, perhaps, going to be terminated.”

Landess, president of the S.C. Policy Council, a limited-government think tank, called Piper’s email “improper,” adding she hoped it would not detract from the core issues: getting to the bottom of the allegations of public corruption in the Legislature.

“What I’m afraid of is these kind of shenanigans and grandstanding will eclipse the rule of law and what Pascoe, and, frankly, the Attorney General’s office, should have been doing for the last year,” Landess said. “We don’t want to be distracted by childish politicking.”

In recent weeks, Pascoe and SLED Chief Mark Keel have moved into the final stages of an investigation into alleged public corruption in the S.C. General Assembly. Circuit Judge Clifton Newman has approved a request by them to activate a state grand jury, which has enhanced investigative powers.

Although Wilson, who has connections to the investigation’s potential targets, had recused himself from the investigation and appointed Pascoe, Wilson, upon learning that Pascoe and Keel were activating the state grand jury, took action to halt their probe. Specifically, Wilson ordered state grand jury clerk Jim Park not to sign any subpoenas.

In response, beginning on March 25, Pascoe filed two actions in the state Supreme Court. One is a writ of mandamus that, if granted, would order Park to sign subpoenas. The other asks the Supreme Court to decide who has authority over the state grand jury – Pascoe, who is special prosecutor in the matter, or Wilson, who is attorney general, but who has recused himself.

After Pascoe filed his first action, Wilson on March 28 announced he was firing Pascoe as special prosecutor and would appoint 5th Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson. But Johnson refused the appointment, saying the Supreme Court needed to settle the matter first.

Then, on March 30, after Pascoe filed his second action asking for a declaratory judgment, Wilson held a news conference in which he lambasted Pascoe as being a subpar prosecutor and belittled his accomplishments.

Two days later, last Friday, Piper wrote the email to Moore, asking for the party’s help in destroying Pascoe’s reputation.

Adams said that, at the least, Wilson has an ethical obligation “to disavow that statement and to instruct Mr. Piper not to ever do anything like that again,” Adams said.

“A political vendetta has no role in a system of justice,” Adams said.

Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster, a former attorney general and former S.C. Republican Party chairman, supports Wilson in his legal position, saying Wilson – and not Pascoe – has sole authority to activate a state grand jury investigation.

However, on Tuesday evening, McMaster declined to comment on the Piper email.

“I don’t want to get into that,” McMaster said. “There’s enough going on without a comment from me!”

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 8:23 PM with the headline "Attorney General Wilson responds to top aide’s smear effort."