|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by ANDY FANCHER
***
At a packed Greenville County Republican Party meeting on Monday, veteran solicitor David Pascoe used a campaign presentation to take aim at the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, spotlighting allegations from an unpublished whistleblower complaint as he campaigns to lead the agency.
“I know that every Patriot in this room agrees with my overarching theme of tonight,” Pascoe said at the outset. “Which is that government must serve the people and not political insider. When you tolerate corruption, you let the devil in.”
Pascoe’s remarks came during a lengthy presentation built around a 54-slide deck that drew not only on his 33-year prosecutorial career, but also on his role as special prosecutor in a Statehouse corruption investigation commonly known as “Probegate.”
***
***
That investigation led to the conviction and removal from office of several of the state’s most powerful lawmakers, including former House Speaker Bobby Harrell and former Senate President Pro Tempore John Courson, along with multiple guilty pleas by other state legislators.
As he laid out the case, Pascoe identified the nucleus of the corruption scheme as Richard Quinn & Associates, the influential Columbia-based firm run by the late Richard Quinn.
“I wanted to go further. I wanted to go a lot further,” Pascoe said of the Probegate investigation. “But the state Supreme Court told me I had to stop because they said I was not the attorney general. Well, I’m running for attorney general to finish the job that I started.”
As an ostensible example of that unfinished business, Pascoe trained his fire on Adam Piper – a former employee of Richard Quinn & Associates who later served as a controversial deputy chief of staff under S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson.
Repeatedly referring to Piper as a “swamp parasite,” Pascoe cited a state grand jury report from the Probegate investigation that noted Piper was, at one point, receiving compensation from both Richard Quinn & Associates and the S.C. Attorney General’s Office simultaneously.
***
***
Pascoe further pointed to Piper’s continued proximity to government power, citing his founding of Pennant LLC in 2021, the acquisition of Coaches vs. Overdoses in 2024, and his current role as executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).
Through RAGA, Pascoe alleged Piper has “been in touch” with two fellow attorney general candidates — S.C. state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch and 8th Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo — and displayed materials showing all three attended a RAGA conference in Miami last September.
This was just the buildup…
“Now is when you need to start paying attention,” Pascoe said as he advanced his slide to a FITSNews article published in November 2025. “This is what it’s all about.”
The editorial Pascoe highlighted focused on the S.C. Senate Legislative Oversight Committee’s handling of a whistleblower complaint originating within the Attorney General’s Office. FITSNews founding editor Will Folks wrote in that editorial that the proceeding was “treated with kid gloves” and “failed to explore numerous credible allegations.”
Wilson, by contrast, praised the proceeding at the time, telling reporters he not only “enjoyed” the process but “loved it.”
***
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson appears before the S.C. Senate Legislative Oversight Committee on Nov. 5, 2025. (Andrew Fancher/FITSNews)
***
Echoing our editorial, Pascoe told the audience he has reviewed the unpublished whistleblower statement and said the allegations were “too important to be ignored” – but that the six-member committee of lawyer-legislators who reviewed the complaint had “swept it under the rug.”
“Prove me wrong,” Pascoe said. “These guys up at the State Senate are way too smart to do what they did and for it not to be malicious… They totally swept it under the rug and didn’t want you to hear what the whistleblower had to say.”
According to Pascoe, the whistleblower statement runs roughly eight to 10 pages and contains “at least” six allegations that he said “need to be investigated.” During Monday’s presentation, however, he focused on a single allegation that brought the discussion back to Piper.
During his presentation, Pascoe alleged Piper brought a proposed piece of legislation, the Child Identification Program Act of 2022, to the S.C. Senate. The measure, which provides child identification kits to be distributed to every public school district in the state for students in grades K–12, passed unanimously in the General Assembly.
“There’s a definition for that – it’s called lobbying,” Pascoe said, referring to Piper’s alleged role in advancing the legislation. “Oh, by the way, Adam Piper is not a registered lobbyist.”
***
***
Pascoe emphasized that both the funding for the statewide initiative and the contract for the child ID kits are handled through the Attorney General’s Office. Citing the whistleblower statement, he said the office pushed aggressively to award the contract without competitive bidding to a Texas-based company called the Safety Blitz Foundation.
Records reviewed by FITSNews show the Attorney General’s Office awarded a five-year contract in December 2022 with a total potential value of $2,232,200.
That arrangement, Pascoe said, would not be problematic were it not for what he described as “evidence” produced by the whistleblower showing “direct links” between the Safety Blitz Foundation and Pennant LLC… the company founded and led by Piper.
“I know where the evidence points, but maybe, maybe we’re wrong,” Pascoe said. “Did Adam Piper make taxpayer money off of the Child ID Program Act? And if so, how much? And how and why did he have the inside knowledge to do this, and who helped him?”
Pascoe indicated that such financial connections, if true, could implicate multiple provisions of state law related to unregistered lobbying, misuse of public office and improper financial benefit derived from government access.
“That was just one issue that the whistleblower brought up,” Pascoe said.
***
He then briefly referenced additional issues raised in the whistleblower statement, including Piper’s alleged proximity to opioid abatement funding, allegations that Piper engaged in procurement-related lobbying tied to another sole-source funding request involving a company called Tranquility AI, and claims that employees within the Attorney General’s Office were improperly compensated for campaign-related activities.
Pascoe concluded his remarks on a political note, pledging to make it “impossible” for public officials and their associates to profit from public funds or their positions. If elected, he said he would establish a Public Corruption Unit within the Attorney General’s Office and work directly with legislative ethics committees to review complaints.
“We are going to roam the halls of the State House if we have nothing else to do, to let them know we’re there,” Pascoe said. “And I am going to ensure transparency at every level of government.”
Pascoe said that approach would include “prosecution” of public servants who fail to comply with the Palmetto State’s Freedom of Information Act, a cornerstone transparency law that public agencies across South Carolina chronically ignore or misapply.
“I am a wolf in wolf’s clothing,” Pascoe said. “I’m going to go up to the State House, and I’m going to huff and puff, and I’m going to take a bulldozer to that house until we end the culture of corruption.”
This story may be updated.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
2 comments
Way cool, some valid points! I appreciate you making this article available, the rest of the site is also high quality. Have a fun.
I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the page layout of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?