SC Supreme Court Will Hear Nikki Haley Ethics Case

The S.C. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this spring regarding a lower court’s decision to dismiss criminal ethics charges against S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley.

Last March, S.C. Circuit Court judge Casey Manning declined to rule on the case against Haley – instead referring the matter to the notoriously corrupt S.C. House Ethics Committee.

Haley was accused of multiple abuses of power during her six years as a member of the S.C. House of Representatives from 2005-2011. Specifically, she was accused of illegally lobbying on behalf of Lexington Medical Center, her former employer from 2008-10. She was also been accused of illegally lobbying on behalf of Wilbur Smith Associates – an engineering firm with extensive business before the state – and failing to report $42,500 in income received from the company between 2007-09.

The governor has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing – although in this case there was at least one smoking gun attesting to her guilt.

Despite an abundant evidence against Haley, the ethics committee nonetheless voted last June to dismiss all of the charges against her. This decision was based exclusively on testimony from the governor and sympathetic witnesses – and was reached without a public examination of the evidence (including evidence sought by the committee).

Haley’s accuser John Rainey, a prominent GOP fundraiser, was never allowed to present his case to the committee. Instead he was sequestered in a private room – unable to even listen as the governor called him a racist for daring to raise questions about her transparent lawlessness.

It was a show trial, people, which isn’t surprising when you consider that Haley threatened members of the committee – and their “Republican” leaders – with political retribution if they went against her.

So … will the Supreme Court undo this travesty?

We doubt it … remember, Chief Justice Jean Toal is every bit as corrupt as Haley.

Our guess is the court has agreed to hear this case for the sole purpose of reaffirming the S.C. General Assembly’s exclusive right to discipline its current and former members – a “fox guards hen house” arrangement which enables corrupt politicians like Haley (and S.C. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell) to evade accountability for their actions.

Anyway, oral arguments in the case are scheduled for March 20, 2013 at 10:30 a.m.

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