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by WILL FOLKS
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The chief of South Carolina’s statewide grand jury – and the lead prosecutor in the case of accused killer Alex Murdaugh – threw shade on one of the candidates running for attorney general of the Palmetto State recently.
Creighton Waters, who considered campaigning for attorney general himself, took to social media late Friday evening and early Saturday morning (May 29-30, 2026) to criticize S.C. first circuit solicitor David Pascoe for his alleged failure to see a sprawling public corruption case through to completion.
Waters did not mention Pascoe by name, but appropriated unto himself – and attorney general Alan Wilson – full credit for initiating ‘ProbeGate,’ a criminal investigation into influence peddling at the S.C. State House. Specifically, Waters cited a July 2014 hearing before the S.C. supreme court in which he and Wilson successfully argued to keep these investigations alive.
“We won and were the architects of it all,” Waters wrote. “Such a super hard fight just to keep it going.”
In one of the comments below his post, Waters referenced how he has prosecuted “sheriffs, chiefs, school officials stealing money, agency officials (and) legislators.”
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“Someone else had a case handed to them on a silver platter,” he continued. “And then…”
Questioned as to which case he was referencing, Waters added that he “let someone else into the case we made on a silver platter – then he gave it away for half its value, ensured we could not participate in the debrief and had to appeal his own guilty plea.”
Waters did not specifically identify the case – or name the prosecutor – but multiple sources familiar with the context of his remarks told us he was referring to Pascoe’s handling of ‘ProbeGate.’
Pascoe was originally responsible for overseeing the ‘ProbeGate’ cases, securing several guilty pleas and one conviction. In March of 2021, though, Wilson’s office referred all remaining criminal cases connected to the investigation to S.C. seventh circuit solicitor Barry Barnette. That referral followed a supreme court ruling over disputed prosecutorial powers in the inquiry.
Our media outlet covered Probegate extensively at the time – praising Pascoe for the guilty pleas and the conviction he secured, but criticizing him for failing to hold the special interests involved accountable. Pascoe has insisted he was prevented from taking the case all the way by the courts.
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“Midnight social media posting is never a good idea – as it tends to cloud one’s senses and keep them from accurately recalling facts,” Pascoe told us. “I doubt the attorney general’s office wants an autopsy of their mishandling of the probe.”
According to Pascoe, Waters “failed to mention how at least three solicitors including one of my opponents turned down the probe, calling it a ‘hornet’s nest.'”
“I had to fight the attorney general’s office at every step to pursue justice,” Pascoe said. “If I had not sued the attorney general’s office for the right to initiate the grand jury probe with SLED, corrupt politicians we removed from office would still be running our state.”
“Luckily for Mr. Waters, I’ll be coming in to clean up the corruption in our state,” Pascoe added. “The days of protecting corrupt politicians will end. The days of paying lawyer legislators millions in no-bid contracts will end too.”
Waters previously stated on social media that he “decided not to run” for attorney general, but is endorsing the candidacy of S.C. eighth circuit solicitor David Stumbo.
“I know him to be a committed and top notch prosecutor, a man of high character, and an excellent lawyer on whose advice I have relied in the past,” Waters wrote of Stumbo.
Partisan primary elections in South Carolina are scheduled for June 9, 2026 – with early voting currently underway. Recent polls show Pascoe and state senator Stephen Goldfinch running neck-and-neck in the race for the Republican attorney general’s nomination, with Stumbo gaining ground behind them. In the event no candidate wins a majority of votes on the first ballot, the top two vote-getters would advance to a head-to-head runoff election two weeks later (on June 23, 2026).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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