SC

SC State House: All About “The Probe”

UPDATE ON SOUTH CAROLINA’S CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION … By FITSNEWS ||  So far, the only news outlet in South Carolina that’s written about the ongoing federal investigation into corruption at the S.C. State House is, well, the news outlet your are reading now … And we’ve written about it four times…

UPDATE ON SOUTH CAROLINA’S CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION …

By FITSNEWS ||  So far, the only news outlet in South Carolina that’s written about the ongoing federal investigation into corruption at the S.C. State House is, well, the news outlet your are reading now …

And we’ve written about it four times (HERE, HERE, HERE and most recently HERE).

That’s about to change, though.  Multiple mainstream media outlets are reportedly on the verge of tackling the story.  And not only are they going to be confirming much of the information we’ve already published – we’re told they will be adding new details about the probe gleaned from their own networks of sources.

Good … it’s about time.

To recap: Federal investigators working in cooperation with the S.C. Attorney General and other state entities have been conducting a joint investigation into allegations of corruption at the S.C. State House for the past nine months (at least).  This investigation – which is expected to result in indictments prior to the end of the year – centers on three main areas.  Those are, 1) misuse of campaign funds by members, 2) abusing public offices for personal gain and 3) vote-trading (or vote-selling) tied to the controversial February 2014 legislative election that saw Jean Toal win another term as chief justice of the state’s supreme court.

Other judicial elections may also be part of “the probe …”

And we’re told it’s not just limited to state lawmakers … but lobbyists (and lobbyist principals) are also involved.

The saga of “the probe” is the hottest item of discussion under the State House dome … especially after U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles appeared at the arraignment of suspended S.C. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell earlier this week.  Harrell is facing a nine-count state indictment related to various allegations of public corruption – and his case is said to be integrally linked to the federal investigation.

Nettles and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson have been in close cooperation on the Harrell case – which is currently being prosecuted by first district solicitor David Pascoe.

According to our sources, multiple S.C. lawmakers have canceled fundraisers in recent days due to concerns about the investigation.

“Legislators are worried about taking money from people being probed,” one source told us.

Little late for that, we suspect …

Numerous lawmakers have also reportedly retained legal counsel in anticipation of forthcoming indictments.

Additionally, we’re informed that the website East Coast Politics and its editor John Osborne is among the new media outlets following up on our reports – specifically looking at various state contracts that have gone to businesses with “legislative connections.”

“He’s making progress,” one lawmaker told us.  “So is the Post and Courier.”

Interesting … the more the merrier as far as we’re concerned.

Related posts

SC

Midlands SC Community Mourns Beloved School Official

Will Folks
SC

South Carolina Mayor Dead Following Car Crash

Will Folks
SC

Palmetto Past & Present: How Columbia Became the Confederacy’s Currency Capital

Mark Powell

42 comments

ScrewedNSC October 2, 2014 at 4:59 pm

Lobbyist and lobbyist principals? No way , they would never pass cash around to influence legislation.

Reply
Round &round we go! October 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm

How is the Senate escaping this, or are they?
An investigator told me some in the Senate barely missed indictment during lost Trust and some are still in office!
WTF?!
We desperately need term limits, recall provisions and Nuclear Ethics Laws!!!!

Reply
Tick Tock Tic Tock October 2, 2014 at 5:06 pm

Message to the Statehouse and Harrell’s cronies; Time is running out if you want Whistleblower status and protection. There will be no mercy in this matter. Home and Office raids cometh – some even at 3 a.m. while you sleep. Will it be you? Will it be your friends? Your sons or daughters?
Act now before its too late. Turn witness and be granted Whistleblower protection.

Reply
TontoBubbaGoldstein October 2, 2014 at 9:59 pm

“A snitch in time saves nine.”

Reply
The Colonel October 2, 2014 at 5:15 pm

Okay Will, on this one you get to pay yourself on the back. Congratulations on leading some of these blind squirrels in the MSM to the nuts, err crooks.

Reply
Smirks October 2, 2014 at 5:25 pm

No, that’s OK feds, you can just skip the lube on this probe.

Reply
Soft Sigh from Hell October 2, 2014 at 6:15 pm

Yes, make this probe “sans lubricaccion!”

Reply
WW October 2, 2014 at 7:27 pm

No, no grease it then coat with gritty river sand!

Reply
Joe Friday October 3, 2014 at 2:43 am

You got it, Smirks. I’d like to see the Nexsen Pruet law firm indicted. Those are a bunch of whores with a marketing campaign that’s really slick. So absolutely no lube — especially for Nexsen Pruet.

Reply
Old lawyer October 3, 2014 at 2:01 pm

Nexsen Pruet is like Nelson Mullins. They are so tied into Jean Toal, they think they are bullet proof. Remember, NP has Vicki Eslinger who is supposed to be one of Jean’s BFF’s.

Reply
Honor In Taking Down Evil October 2, 2014 at 5:31 pm

Washington, D.C. is watching over the shoulders of Nettles and Wilson, obviously. So many emails and letters went out to USDOJ about this cesspool in South Carolina. When you have members of the bar complaining, it tends get more attention. I would not be surprised if the FBI agents in South Carolina are being spied upon by superiors from outside the state. After all, the agents working out of SC’s field offices are SC residents.
Agents and prosecutors have been caught up in things before. Its surely not uncommon. Hence, the need for other law enforcement agents to keep a watchful eye over those directly involved in carrying out the take down of organized crime ring.

Reply
anonymous October 2, 2014 at 6:29 pm

I am reading between the lines on this post. I agree with you.

I posted a comment on this issue on an earlier story and made the mistake of listing that superstar long time SC FBI agent’s first name. My post disappeared within hours. He is all tangled up in the Lexington County messes as well as the judiciary shenanigans. He plays golf with investigators from the SC AG’s office. Members of the SC BAR are scared to death of Toal. She is most vindictive.

I understand the Feds are only watching Nettles to be sure he doesn’t get in the way. Nettles is a short timer where he is now.

Reply
R. Cobb the snowman October 2, 2014 at 6:39 pm

After Lost Trust some of the Fed boys went down to Five Points and tied one on in celebration of their big case. The FBI supervisor was heading out I-20 towards home and got pulled over by a Highway Patrol supervisor and was given a DUI charge. If my memory serves me well the agent was recalled to Washington and given a reprimand.

Every time that I see Enis Fant strutting around Greenville, excuse me, The Rev. Enis Fant, I think of all the big names that got away. He was guilty but not worthy of celebrating. They traded down and the big names walked. Many of the large schemes that they were trying to reveal never saw the light of day and gambling was just one casualty. Large tax breaks for certain people were where the real money was being made.

Reply
Who R they? October 2, 2014 at 7:30 pm

A few Senators barely escaped!

Reply
Buz Martin October 3, 2014 at 6:27 am

Please clarify. By “SC FBI”, do you refer to SLED or the actual FBI, — meaning to an FBI agent assigned to SC? Confusing as stated.

Reply
anonymous October 3, 2014 at 1:59 pm

Actual FBI agent assigned to SC who has been here for almost 20 years.

Reply
FastEddy23 October 2, 2014 at 7:10 pm

… All the more reason to turn up the heat and burn those scallawags to the ground … and, of course, the horses they rode in on.

This is why Classic Liberals invented tar and feathers.

Reply
euwe max October 2, 2014 at 5:34 pm

what the fuck is *that*?

Reply
Centrist View October 2, 2014 at 5:40 pm

Does this mean that there will be a number of special elections? Or, for indicted ones that just won elections, do the 2nd place finishers get the office?

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/scconstitution/a03.php
ARTICLE III.
LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT
SECTION 25. Vacancies.
If any election district shall neglect to choose a member or members on the day of election, or if any person chosen a member of either house shall refuse to qualify and take his seat, or shall resign, die, depart the State, accept any disqualifying office or position, or become otherwise disqualified to hold his seat, a writ of election shall be issued by the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, for the purpose of filling the vacancy thereby occasioned for the remainder of the term for which the person so refusing to qualify, resigning, dying, departing the State, or becoming disqualified, was elected to serve, or the defaulting election district ought to have chosen a member or members.

Reply
Soft Sigh from Hell October 2, 2014 at 5:58 pm

I’ll bet the MSM don’t have this site blocked on their servers.

With the first story I meant to post the question: “How long before we see the first of this in the MSM?”

Reply
euwe max October 2, 2014 at 6:47 pm

Only the most grizzled and long lived reporters… with 5 o’clock shadow, after hours, who are battle hardened enough to face the icy black truth about power in the South might openly follow stories about corruption on the net – founded or not .. but and because they are smart enough not to introduce a story that hasn’t been officially sanctioned in their own column inches…

What maniac with a career between thumb and forefinger could, or would, calmly and deftly flick it though the tiny flaming hoop of public attention, releasing the demons of instant reprisal in the process?

Would a host of angels arrive at the battlefront.. brave liberal colleagues, once ghosts, suddenly appearing at his side with swords of ink.. phone calls from angry constituents to their congressmen activating long slumbering justice… to deliver South Carolina from the grip of corruption?

Or will slut tv carry the day, and relegate it all into the trash bin of distasteful and thereby, non profitable news.. while Goodwill marks down an old bathrobe for the third time.

Reply
Soft Sigh from Hell October 3, 2014 at 4:23 pm

The timid SC MSM are like yip poodles. They will only venture in to give a nip after someone with power–political or economic–has inflicted the first deep bite and the ensuing howling is too loud to pretend away.

Reply
WTF??? October 2, 2014 at 6:10 pm

FBI PROBE THIS >>> The state’s embattled Department of Social Services announced plans Thursday to provide staffers with an immediate pay raise and hire more than 200 workers by the end of this year.

DSS Acting Director Amber Gillum said that effective Oct. 1, county DSS caseworkers and supervisors will receive a 10 percent pay increase.

Reply
Lobeco October 2, 2014 at 6:20 pm

Street talk at Gervais and Sumter is that Toal is going to say she had no idea what Harrell was up to with her last election in February.

Will Sic’s buddy Tom Davis tell the truth? He and Wes Hayes were two senators Toal and Harrell targeted in their first round. Davis and Hayes then brought in approximately 4 House members a piece for Toal after they caved.

Reply
pepe le pew October 2, 2014 at 7:14 pm

Tom Ervin is spending millions of dollars on a campaign that has no chance of winning and is apparently polling around 3%. Libertarian French is polling about the same apparently by just having his wife show off her large boobs on Fits in family pics.In 2010 Ervin’s wife was a major donor to the SCDP and donated to the Sheheen campaign. At one time Ervin had spent more on his campaign than Haley and Sheheen combined.

What is in it for Tom, if anything? He just seems to smart to piss away millions, for what? Ervin’s stance on the Confederate Flag “issue” that Sheheen has created to divide South Carolinians , destroy the economy and apparently recreate a Ferguson, Missouri for a few votes, in my opinion, will lead us in the “right” direction in regards to what is in “this” , if anything, for Ervin.

You people seem to be all into bizzaro conspiracy theories of corruption and lawlessness.Entertaining.

Reply
E Norma Scok October 3, 2014 at 10:26 am

Moral of the story? Boobs can win an election.
And someone was questioning what women empowering their bodies meant?

Reply
euwe max October 2, 2014 at 6:32 pm

Once they pull back the curtains.. it’s gonna cost a lot of money to clean this shit up… are you guys up to it?

Can you put politics away long enough to crucify your elected representatives who have been distorting the truth on your behalf.. hypocritically crucifying them for distorting the truth on their own behalf?

Reply
willblogformoney October 2, 2014 at 7:33 pm

When you stop lapping Pelosi’s pussy then we’ll talk.

Reply
euwe max October 2, 2014 at 9:09 pm

no thanks.

Reply
FastEddy23 October 2, 2014 at 6:53 pm

“… “Legislators are worried about taking money from people being probed,” one source told us. …” – FITSNews.com quote above.

LOL … If that’s the dilemma, then all of their shmusing and shmoozing of the vast unwashed, clueless, corrupt, corrupted and corruptible JV “journalists” in MSM is and has been going to be for naught. Are these clowns going to stop buying mainstream media time and space … or revert to new, fresh kneepads for those fawning fools? (Wasted on the vast video wasteland? Would or will the sloshing slush funds have been better spent elsewhere like direct paybacks to the g’ment unions, polo-parties and pliable voters … or even ad space here?)

Is a duck’s butt water tight?

Reply
media sluts October 2, 2014 at 7:24 pm

East Coast Politics? Anybody been to that “Facebook” site?
Tango’s site looks like Fox News compared to that pile of ruble.
Shame on them for slandering Mark Sanford with their vicious lies. Stand tall Mark!

Reply
truthmonger October 3, 2014 at 8:31 am

Idiot. There are no state or local unions in SC. That’s why pay and benefits are so low.

BTW, what do you have against people who negotiate with employers for wages? Are you anti-free market???

Reply
FastEddy23 October 6, 2014 at 12:57 pm

I have nothing against unions at all. I am past member of several unions: IBEW (comm. tech & master wireman), Operating Engineers (honorary / invited), BMWE (railway signalman), SAG and stage hands.

The problems I do have are with the socialists wannabe Wobblies, the SEIU, and several g’ment employee unions whose main and most significant contribution is to g’ment induced inflation and bloated, puffed up pensions, featherbedding and nepotism, none of which have ever done any good for its members except extract tithes and try to sway fraudulently skew elections here in the west in the non-right-to-work states. The folks who fall in line with these scam artists and mostly Helots (wikipedia search required).

You all in South Carolina should consider yourselves fortunate to be in a right-to-work state without the excessively greedy taxsuckers burdening your state workers and electorate.

(Here is Taxifornia we have very serious problems: It takes decades for totally unionized CalTrans to “finish” (re)working highways, $multi-Billion-Dollar$ bridges that are poorly built at three times projected costs and four times … and now they want “high” speed rail and 500 mile long water tunnels under the desert, none of which will every even go out for private sector bid. The cities in Taxifornia are going bankrupt because of the g’ment union pension burdens.)

Reply
Grover October 2, 2014 at 7:35 pm

Haley is on the list the feds is looking into.

Reply
car 54 October 2, 2014 at 7:47 pm

Can you post that list Elmer Rudd?

Reply
Just another Guy October 2, 2014 at 10:13 pm

You best be not lying about this, Sic. I’m gonna be pissed if Bannister survives this.

Reply
George October 3, 2014 at 9:00 am

What does it matter?

Reply
well-i-am into it October 3, 2014 at 9:44 am

Can “The Probe” be struck with the Gavel to ceremonially get the deepest penetration. Maybe a ceremonial mace would be a better fit all the way in. Gotta show respect to our greatest legislators.

Reply
E Norma Scok October 3, 2014 at 10:24 am

lol..I hear Big T has some articles coming out on his blog that really go into some in depth explanations.

Reply
John October 3, 2014 at 10:48 am

Not enough KY on that probe… Or maybe too much.

Reply
KY Jelly October 3, 2014 at 12:57 pm

Bring Loftis in. He keeps uses KY when probed.

Reply
John October 3, 2014 at 5:16 pm

Your comment makes no sense. “He keeps uses KY when probed” means what, exactly?

Reply

Leave a Comment