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Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 06:08 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

“We are not going to Talk about Ethics Reform Any More. We are going to Talk about Ending Systemic Corruption in this State.” - Ashley Landess, President, SC Policy Council

AshleyLandess_Page-01-6-25-14“We are not going to talk about ethics reform any more. We are going to talk about ending systemic corruption in this state,” Ashley Landess told attendees at the Greenville based RINO Hunt meeting last Friday night.

Landess was speaking after the Legislature failed to pass an ethics reform bill that critics said had nothing to do with ethics.

“It would have decriminalized the ethics code and forced citizens who want to participate in legislative hearings to register as lobbyists.”

The bill that passed both Houses of the Legislature but did not get out of the Conference Committee contained one important reform, according to the Policy Council Education Foundation newsletter.

The final version of the bill would have required “state elected officials to disclose their sources of private income.” Reportedly, South Carolina is one of only two states in the union that do not have such a requirement.

Landess was in Greenville to encourage attendance at the Supreme Court hearing on the Bobby Harrell ethics case to take place Tuesday afternoon. The Policy Council, along with other public interest groups, had filed serious ethics complaints with the Attorney General. The Attorney General forwarded the allegations to SLED for investigation. The results of the SLED investigation were returned to the Attorney General and, after review, he determined that the matter was of such importance that it should be referred to a Grand Jury.

A team of lawyers representing Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell began a desperate attempt to stop the Grand Jury proceedings and having the Attorney General removed from the case.

Circuit Judge Casey Manning heard the appeal and ruled in favor of Harrell. Essentially the ruling by the judge said that the Harrell case could not go to a Grand Jury until after the House Ethics Committee heard the case and decided their boss should be prosecuted.

Landess said that the current and immediate past Attorneys General have concluded, “If this ruling is not overturned by the Supreme Court, Lawmakers will be immune from prosecution for corruption.”

It may be of interest to readers that Speaker Harrell appoints and essentially controls members of the Ethics Committee. He also has a powerful role in the appointment of judges, including the one that ruled on his case and the Supreme Court that will hear the appeal by the Attorney General.

Landess noted that the state budget was the largest ever each of the last 5 or so years.

“Until we can force them to follow the law and take away the power that allows them to pass the budget in secret and hide what its for, we can’t stop things like Common Core and Obama Care.”

“Nothing is going to change until we stop taking the money,” Landess concluded.

Big money is coming into South Carolina in support of Obama Care and Common Core. Some of it is getting to individuals or their companies.

“As long as politicians can make laws, control the executive branch of government and decide who becomes a judge, if two lawmakers can do that, do you think anything else is going to change?” Landess asked.

She said this is simply about “a corrupt state legislature, their power and their money.”

She said this is about road contracts going to their companies.

Lawmakers are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act they passed.

Putting the Harrell case in perspective, Landess said Barack Obama will be gone in a couple of years, however, “unless Bobby Harrell is indited, you cannot get rid of him. Harrell and Sen. Hugh Leatherman control 7 of the 10 positions on the committee that selects judges. Sen. Larry Martin controls the three remaining Judicial Screening positions.”

Landess ended her presentation on an optimistic note. A new Public Corruption unit, that according to press reports involves “unprecedented cooperation” between the South Carolina Attorney General and the federal prosecutor assigned to South Carolina, recently indited a popular Sheriff.

About 30 years ago “Operation Lost Trust” conducted by the FBI cleaned out the South Carolina House and Senate and freed state government of corruption. That may be the only way honest government can be restored.

 

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