{"id":6604,"date":"2023-11-04T11:03:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T16:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/?p=6604"},"modified":"2023-11-05T16:00:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T21:00:37","slug":"ethics-watchdog-files-suit-against-sc-ags-political-slush-fund-and-the-practice-of-lawyer-legislators-electing-their-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2023\/11\/04\/ethics-watchdog-files-suit-against-sc-ags-political-slush-fund-and-the-practice-of-lawyer-legislators-electing-their-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics watchdog files suit against SC AG\u2019s political slush fund and the practice of lawyer-legislators electing their judges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Limited in-person seating at GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave. in Columbia.<\/strong> Register HERE<\/a> to join on Zoom.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join the SC Progressive Policy Institute on Sunday, Nov. 5, 6-7pm in-person and on Zoom, as SC ethics watchdog Dr. John Crangle connects the facts in an explosive case of corruption in all three branches of state government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crangle filed\na lawsuit in 2021 charging state Attorney General Alan Wilson with illegally\nand unilaterally awarding $75 million dollars of a $600 million class action\nsettlement to two small law firms in Columbia. Crangle asserts that the amount\nwas grossly excessive and should have been for actual work rather than a\npercentage of the award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson\nhired Columbia-based Willoughby law firm to help represent the state against the\nUS Dept. of Energy for violating an agreement to remove tons of plutonium from America\u2019s\nBomb Plant in Aiken. The Willoughby law firm is represented by Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Todd Rutherford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After filing the case, Crangle went before Circuit Judge Alison\nLee to prevent the funds from being transferred prior to determining the\nlegality of the fee. AG Wilson ordered the State Treasurer\u2019s Office to send an\nexpedited $75 million wire transfer to the Willoughby law firm the day before\nthe hearing. The judge denied the request for a temporary injunction, and the\nmoney remains publicly unaccounted for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AG\u2019s\nlawyers and Rutherford, representing the law firms who were to receive the fee,\nthen went court to argue that Crangle did not have standing to sue the Attorney\nGeneral. Judge R. Kirk Griffin agreed, and dismissed the case. Crangle appealed\nto the State Supreme Court, which agreed the case should be heard and sent it\nback to Circuit Court for a hearing on the merits. It was assigned to Circuit Judge Daniel McLeod Coble, son of\nformer Columbia mayor Bob Coble and grandson the late state Attorney General\nDan McLeod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 12, John Monk, the only reporter following this\ncase, wrote in The State, \u201cthe Justices ruled\nthat Crangle had raised a substantial question of public interest about the\nattorney general\u2019s authority to award legal fees and were therefore entitled to\nsue Wilson and the law firms. Moreover, Wilson had five other outstanding fee\nagreements, so the same controversy might arise in the future, justices said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 24, after hearing arguments from Rutherford,\nJudge Coble ruled that in spite of being ordered by the State Supreme Court to\nhold a hearing for Crangle to argue the merits of his case, Crangle did not have the standing to allow\nhim to challenge the Attorney General\u2019s decision. Coble went so far as\nto scold the justices for presuming their authority to overrule the executive\nbranch on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crangle has appealed Coble\u2019s decision not to allow\nthe case to proceed to the Supreme Court.\nInformed observers predict the Supreme Court will again side with Crangle, but\nnot before the Nov. 6 hearing of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission on the\nre-election of Coble to the uncontested seat for a full six-year term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crangle is\nquick to point out that the attorneys signed up by the Attorney General are not\nat fault for accepting these jobs. It is Crangle\u2019s contention that AG Wilson is\nviolating his public trust in selecting private attorneys, paid with large\ncontingency fees with funds that should be sent to the state\u2019s general fund and\nallocated by the General Assembly. It is also apparent that the Justices share\nCrangle\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crangle\nsays the case is a glaring example of corruption and collusion that needs to be\nrooted out, warning, \u201cAttorney General Wilson\u2019s selection of political\nheavyweights of both political parties to receive potentially millions of\ndollars gives the appearance that he is investing the peoples\u2019 money in his\nupcoming campaign for governor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmost immediate chapter of this slow-moving, high-stakes, scandal comes with Rutherford\u2019s upcoming Nov. 6 vote on the\nre-election of Judge Cobleto his first six-year term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct.\n21, Rutherford\u2019s practice of law, in front of judges he elects, prompted nine of the state\u2019s 16 Judicial District\nSolicitorsto petition House and Senate leaders to remove\nRutherford from the Judicial Merit Selection Commission. In fact, a majority of\nthe state\u2019s elected criminal prosecutors based their request on a \u201cpattern\u201d of\nRutherford \u201cobtaining unprecedented,\nand in some instances patently\nunlawful, outcomes in criminal matters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawyer-legislators\nrepresenting clients before judges they elect is unique to South Carolina and Virginia,the only states that\nallow the practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national lawsuits that Attorney General Wilson has signed on to \u2014 and selected the attorneys to participate in the fees he establishes \u2014 can be found at: https:\/\/www.scag.gov\/litigation-retention-agreements\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class action lawsuits in the works that Wilson has chosen both Republican and Democratic power brokers to receive fees includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Purdue Pharma for damages from opioid addiction:  Former Democratic Senator Marlon Kimpson with the powerful Motley Rice law firm resigned his senate seat in March to take a job with the Biden Administration. Former Republican Senator Paul Thurmond, youngest son of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, former Democratic Representative and gubernatorial candidate James Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Pharmacy Benefit Managers for\nmanipulating prices and access to prescription drugs: Speaker of the SC House of Representatives, Murrell Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Insulin Manufacturers\nfor manipulating prices of insulin: Speaker of the SC House of Representatives, Murrell Smith, and former\nChair of the State Republican Party John\nSimmons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Google Advertising Technology: The Chicago law firm that filed the\ninitial suit against\nGoogle was quickly joined by two\nnational class action firms in New Orleans and Houston and two days\nlater by Former SC Republican Attorney\nGeneral Charlie Condon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Numerous giant chemical companies making \u201cforever chemicals\u201d: Former SC\nDemocratic Senator and gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Links to\nJohn Monk\u2019s coverage of Crangle\u2019s attempts to expose and stop the Attorney\nGeneral\u2019s political slush fund: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well-known Columbia lawyer likely winner in race to replace SC Judge\nCasey Manning BY JOHN MONK UPDATED JANUARY 28, 2022 8:13 PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.thestate.com\/news\/politics-government\/article257793243.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbia lawyer Coble wins race to replace retiring veteran SC Judge\nCasey Manning BY JOHN MONK UPDATED FEBRUARY 02, 2022 3:00 PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.thestate.com\/news\/politics-government\/article257961168.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dispute over $75M in legal fees SC attorney general paid to law firms now\nin judge\u2019s hands BY JOHN MONK OCTOBER 12, 2023 5:00 AM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.thestate.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article280397419.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solicitors ask SC House speaker to remove lawmaker from judge selection\ngroup BY JAVON L. HARRIS: Oct. 24<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.thestate.com\/news\/politics-government\/article280734035.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SC judge upholds Attorney General Wilson\u2019s right to give $75 million to\nprivate law firms BY JOHN MONK OCTOBER 26, 2023 11:11 AM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.thestate.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article280895973.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Limited in-person seating at GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave. in Columbia. Register HERE to join on Zoom. Join the SC Progressive Policy Institute on Sunday, Nov. 5, 6-7pm in-person and on Zoom, as SC ethics watchdog Dr. John Crangle connects the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-network-newsevents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6604"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6609,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6604\/revisions\/6609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}