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#ProbeGate: Senate Leader Took Cash From Consultant

INDICTMENT: LAWMAKER WAS PAID $130,000 BY NEO-CONFEDERATE ADVISOR … S.C. Senator John Courson has been accused of receiving more that $130,000 over a six-year period from a company run by his political consultant, neo-Confederate Republican Richard Quinn. The payments were made between 2006 and 2012, the year Courson was elected president…

INDICTMENT: LAWMAKER WAS PAID $130,000 BY NEO-CONFEDERATE ADVISOR …

S.C. Senator John Courson has been accused of receiving more that $130,000 over a six-year period from a company run by his political consultant, neo-Confederate Republican Richard Quinn.

The payments were made between 2006 and 2012, the year Courson was elected president of the State Senate.

They were also made during the time Courson was starring in some shady political ads produced on behalf of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who at the time was the lone Republican in Washington, D.C. supporting former president Barack Obama‘s carbon tax hike.

Specifically, Courson is accused of routing nearly a quarter of a million dollars through his campaign account to Quinn’s company – First Impressions, Inc.  Roughly half of that money was then allegedly funneled back to Courson via “multiple transactions.”

Courson was indicted on two counts of misconduct in office and one count of using campaign money for personal expenses.

News of the Courson indictment was first reported by John Monk of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper, who was provided the information by Courson’s lawyer, Rosemary Parham.

Parham has emphatically denied Courson’s guilt, telling Monk his is the victim of a “partisan witchhunt.”

Is that true?  Here’s our analysis of that allegation.

Courson has represented S.C. Senate District 20 (map) since 1985.  From 2012 to 2014 he was president of the State Senate, a job he relinquished to avoid having to become lieutenant governor.

He is expected to be suspended from office pending the outcome of the charges against him.

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