Well, it happened. After having reached for an absurd justification that even the speaker’s own attorneys hadn’t dared to propose, Circuit Judge Casey Manning ordered Attorney General Alan Wilson and SLED to stop investigating Bobby Harrell, and declared any action taken by the grand jury in the case “null and void.”
To remind you, here is what former attorneys general Travis Medlock, Charlie Condon and Henry McMaster had to say about the notion underlying the judge’s ruling:
“Over the past thirty years, not one of us ever imagined the Attorney General needed authorization from a legislative committee or political body in order to investigate or prosecute alleged criminal behavior by an elected official. Such a restriction would undercut the core Constitutional authority of the Attorney General. And even more importantly, it would violate the fundamental basis of our system of government that all people should be treated equally under the law.”
I wrote previously that the three ex-AGs standing next to Wilson to defend the rule of law made me proud to be from South Carolina. Judge Manning’s ruling makes me want to hang my head.
Wilson was undaunted, fortunately:
We believe today’s order of Judge Manning is without any foundation or support in the law. This office will vigorously pursue all appellate remedies and will seek to continue this investigation.
Judge Manning himself indicated that he expected the matter to be decided by a higher court. Of course, that’s no excuse for an irresponsible ruling.
Until a higher court acts, this investigation is in limbo. And that’s outrageous.
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You still think Bobby Harrell is a decent guy? And don’t we know this is already a lock for the higher court to rule in his favor since Jean Toal owes Harrell for backing her recently? Quid Pro Quo. latin for “They are all corrupt”
I’ll make up my mind about the speaker after I see all the allegations and all the evidence — something that the judge just delayed with this ridiculous ruling.
But in the meantime, I’m certainly appalled by all the people who have been going to outrageous lengths to PROTECT the speaker. I’m talking in particular about all those legislators Cindi mentioned in that first really awesome column on the subject. And now this, from a circuit judge.
If he’s done things that are as bad as some of the people around him seem to THINK, judging by the lengths they’re going to to protect him, he must be pretty bad. But what I have to go by so far are their actions rather than his…
I can’t wait for Cindi’s next column on this. I bet she’s been typing furiously since the release last night, keyboard smoking!
This is some House of Cards, um, stuff
I find it nearly impossible to construct a benign reason for this ruling.
This development would be extremely unfortunate and hard to justify even if the General Assembly was putting a sound and feasible independent investigation mechanism into place for ethics violations by members of the General Assembly. So far — and we are within a day or two of a final chance to act in this session — that has not been the case.
I trust this ruling will be appealed. Currently many of our elected officials share the ethical status of a snapping turtle.
Or maybe I’m insulting turtles.
Turtles just being turtles. Nothing unethical there.
Humans have moral agency!
I haven’t read the ruling, yet. Like Kathryn, I too am struggling to construct a scenario under which this ruling would be supportable or proper. A sua sponte raised issue of jurisdiction that most legal minds would view as specious at best is used to deny a consitutional officer of their specifically delegated duties with political overtones? It looks really bad.
I’ve read the order. It’s not that long – five pages.
To me, it seems like the fundamental disconnect is that Judge Manning doesn’t see any allegations of a criminal nature. Starting from that point, I can’t argue with the decision that much. However, it seems that most everyone (including Attorney General Alan Wilson) are saying that there ARE allegations and/or evidence of a criminal nature.
An easy out would be:
1. The Attorney General formally indicting/charging Harrell with a crime – not an ethics violation.
2. The Ethics Committee just referring the matter to the Attorney General now.
The second option seems unlikely, though.
Charlie Condon in newspaper article basically said, “huh?!?” to the claim that no crimes had been alleged.
Yep, it seems unlikely.
And is the first option something that can happen in light of this ruling, with the judge throwing out all the grand jury’s work.
Isn’t the AG’s only chance of proceeding a favorable appellate decision?
I think that is his next move. The Feds are always a good option when there is a total failure in the state judicial system. It worked in civil rights, and may work here. I don’t know exactly how, but I bet it can be done.
I think you’re right that the Attorney General needs a reversal in order to continue the current investigation. However, to me, it seems that from reading Judge Manning’s order, Wilson could convene a grand jury for Harrell for a crime that isn’t related to the “ethics allegations”. I don’t know how intertwined the alleged crime and the alleged ethics allegation are.
Obviously, the simple way to prevent this problem from occurring in the future will be to modify the relevant statute and explicitly give the Attorney General concurrent jurisdiction.
Also, not for nothing, but I wouldn’t bank on a favorable decision to come from the building on the corner of Sumter and Gervais.
Ya think? The State published a telling photo of Queen Jean with the defendant.
Actually, it turns out that Wilson’s next move is to … continue the mission.
He’s proceeding with the investigation until someone makes him stop…
Man, I need to stop watching dark cable dramas. “someone makes him stop….”
He’s got my vote, fwiw.