South Carolina Top Prosecutor Falsely Accused Of Bilking Crime Victims

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My media outlet has pulled no punches of late in its assessment of South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson‘s handling of the ‘Murdaugh Murders‘ saga as this case makes its way through the appeals process.

I believe Wilson and S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) chief Mark Keel have been more concerned with protecting a flawed guilty verdict against convicted killer Alex Murdaugh than they have been with upholding the integrity of the Palmetto State’s justice system.

That’s too bad… because no matter how you look at it, the jury tampering that took place during the Murdaugh trial has forever tainted the guilty verdicts the state secured in that case.

Having said that, my outlet has also praised Wilson for his work of late on several high-profile national issues – as evidenced by the glowing reviews he received in the latest edition of our FITSNews Political Stock Index.

Good or bad, we call it like we see it… based on our best assessment of the facts.

We are entitled to those assessments, too… but we are not entitled to our own facts.

Unfortunately, South Carolina’s marketplace of ideas is full of voices – both mainstream and fringe – which seem to think they are entitled to their own facts. One such voice? Lee Granade.

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This week, Granade published an article on her Substack page – an article which was republished on at least one activist forum – accusing Wilson of spending taxpayer money on a May 2024 trip to New York City to attend the trial of former president Donald Trump.

“We looked at Wilson’s campaign expenditures as well as the comptroller general’s records of May 2024 spending for out-of-state travel (air transportation and lodging), by the attorney general’s office,” Granade reported. “On the comptroller’s page, it seemed safe to infer that all of the charges indicated by a ‘Bank of America – P Card’ payee are for Alan Wilson since other charges have the payee indicated by first name and sometimes the first initial of their last name.”

Granade suggested further that of all the expenses associated with Wilson’s trip to New York, only one hotel bill – an invoice in the amount of $673.64 – was “funded by campaign donors.”

According to her, this expenditure “comprised approximately three percent of his $21,555 trip.”

Hold up… a one-day trip to the Big Apple costs $21,555? I knew inflation was a bitch these days but… seriously?

That seems a tad excessive…

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I wanted to support President Trump in New York because prosecution and the truth matters. The rule of law matters. This is a sham trial, and if they can do it to President Trump, they can do it to you. pic.twitter.com/ozngpcxyrE

— Alan Wilson (@AGAlanWilson) May 22, 2024

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Who, according to Granade, paid for the rest of Wilson’s trip?

“The rest of the trip, approximately 97 percent, appears to have been paid by monies allocated to the office of the attorney general by taxpayers to, ostensibly, prosecute crimes in South Carolina,” she wrote. “Records of expenditures from the comptroller general for May 2024 suggest that, of the 97 percent of the $21,555 trip paid for by taxpayers, approximately 27 percent was paid for by the (AG-controlled) fund intended for VICTIMS.”

According to Granade, that would put Wilson in violation of the “proper usage of this fund.”

Granade concluded her post by urging readers “to petition the State’s Ethics Commission and the FBI to investigate” Wilson – and to “sign a request to draft Articles of Impeachment” against Wilson.

Let me be clear: Had Wilson spent more than $20,000 of taxpayer money – funds “earmarked for victims,” per Granade – on a one-day trip to New York City to appear in court with Trump, I’d have been the first person to sign a petition to investigate.

He didn’t, though.

Wilson paid approximately $1,520 for transportation and lodging on his May 2024 trip to New York – every penny of which came out of his campaign account. The total cost to taxpayers? Nothing.

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So… what’s going on? Why is Wilson being accused of blowing more than ten times that amount by Granade? In taxpayer funds, no less?

Where, as the expression goes, are “the receipts?”

According to financial records provided to Granade – and subsequently to our media outlet – the comptroller general payments she deemed “safe to infer” as being receipts from Wilson’s New York trip were in fact credit card payments made by the office for previous flights and hotel stays “for training for people who work in our crime victim services section.”

None of those payments covered any travel involving Wilson.

Granade appears to have conflated the date the attorney general’s office paid its credit card bills with the date of Wilson’s trip to New York. However, a review of the itemized expenditures associated with those credit card bills revealed flights (.pdf) and hotel stays (.pdf) for multiple crime victim services employees – but no flights or hotel stays for Wilson.

And, importantly, no trips to New York… for any employee of the attorney general’s office.

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“The Bank of America payments you reference were dated when the payments were made by our finance staff, not the dates on which travel occurred or was booked,” Wilson spokesman Robert Kittle noted in a letter to Granade obtained by our media outlet.

Kim Buckley, finance director for Wilson, confirmed each expenditure on the list with this media outlet – stating definitively that “no charges associated with (Wilson)’s trip to New York were paid by taxpayers.”

Wilson’s office has asked Granade for a retraction, but as of Wednesday afternoon (August 21, 2024) her article remains on Substack, unamended.

Rather than rubbing this error in Granade’s nose too deeply, I’ll simply say she performs a vital service when she brings legitimate pressure to bear on government corruption – but performs a disservice when she falsely accuses a public official of corruption. Such misfires also damage her credibility moving forward – which is unfortunate because South Carolina needs as many credible voices in its marketplace of ideas as possible.

And while I won’t (not now, anyway) delve into the origins of the axe Granade has to grind with Wilson, I would argue harboring an onus against a particular elected official is no excuse to play fast and loose with the truth. If anything, it should impose upon the journalist a higher standard for accuracy.

No one is perfect in this business. We all make mistakes. But as they say in the program, we must “continue to take personal inventory, and when we are wrong – promptly admit it.”

Granade should heed that counsel and resolve to be a more effective critic of Wilson’s in the future…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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