At the federal level, prosecutors do not take the step of empaneling a grand jury unless they are confident they are going to get an indictment against a suspect.
“As a practical matter, a federal grand jury will almost always return an indictment presented to it by a prosecutor,” Washington D.C. criminal defense attorney Solomon L. Wisenberg noted. “This is the basis for Judge Saul (sic) Wachler’s famous saying that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to ‘indict a ham sandwich.'”
Ah yes … Bonfire of the Vanities.
That was a little before our time (and before S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson’s time) – and last time we checked it was Sol Wachtler (not Saul Wachler) – but the ham sandwich metaphor is apt, and about to take on new meaning in the state of South Carolina.
Specifically Wilson – who this week referred a corruption case involving S.C. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell to a statewide grand jury – will see his political future decided over the course of the coming two months.
Either he will emerge as a conquering crusader in the fight against South Carolina’s corrupt status quo – taking down the most powerful elected official in the Palmetto State for a host of serious abuses – or he will be forever remembered as the guy who couldn’t indict a ham sandwich.
The first outcome could very well lead Wilson to the governor’s office in 2018. The second path? It could lead him to the unemployment line.
This website was critical of Wilson during his 2010 campaign, but since taking office three years ago he’s been a pleasant surprise … so far. Wilson has cultivated the public persona of a Boy Scout – a prosecutor who doesn’t play favorites and decides cases based on the merits, not on the politics.
He’s also made targeting public corruption his top priority.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Mr. Attorney General … but it’s put up or shut up time.
Your ham sandwich destiny awaits …
39 comments
The most powerful politician in the state is Senator Leatherman, not Harrell.. Wilson took a pass on his protege, Reynolds Williams, the chairman of the Retirement System. (Williams made about 200 G’s off the retirees) Most people in the know knew when Wilson passed on Williams going to jail Harell’s fate was sealed. Harrell is in for real trouble.
BS
FYI: The AG passed on Williams but the Ethics Commission has not made its decision yet.
This is too big of a gamble for Wilson to go in half ass. The State Grand Jury has very broad powers to gather information and make people testify. Wilson would never roll the dice with Harrell’s future if he was trying to protect him. With the statement coming out of Harrell’s camp, I have no doubt that Wilson is going to take him down. If the fix was in there would have been the BS response from Harrell that he agreed with it going to the grand jury for “transparency” and to remove any “hint of impropriety”. I’m also guessing that SLED did a half ass investigation.
Sorry fellas, I’m going with the ham sandwich.
That is one fine looking ham sandwich. Wish I knew where I could find one like it at this time of night. I’ll have to settle for a “Ham Bone” sandwich from Beezer’s I guess, not that there is anything wrong with those.
Senator Leatherman is behind this. He’s getting older and he knows it. This may be his last “big” session. He needs a compliant house and helpful Governor to ram through he “last big agenda.”
Haley hates Harrell and needs him weakened or gone and will help keep AG Wilson on Harrell’s ass (score one for Leatherman), A new speaker, likely from Leatherman’s Pee Dee region, will be helpful with the I 73 Interstate project other road building in which Leatherman is taking money from other parts of the state and giving to the Florence area and his friends. Also, never forget the new and expensive medical school in Florence which will divert money to the Florence.
This affair has nothing to do with Harrell. It has everything to do with Leatherman, Haley and Wilson teaming up to loot the treasury for their benefit. Harrell was just in the way.
100% about the money. Check out who owns the land for 1 73 and the ?new medical school.” Surprise surprise surprise.
Please, do tell!
Don’t forget to get your ham bone boiled.That’s the most important thing:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fERncHKjMdA,if you know what I’m saying,,,
“This website was critical of Wilson during his 2010 campaign, but since taking office three years ago he’s been a pleasant surprise … so far. Wilson has cultivated the public persona of a Boy Scout – a prosecutor who doesn’t play favorites and decides cases based on the merits, not on the politics.”
Uhhhh, what are you guys smoking? Alan hasn’t and will not touch the Lexington Crime ring because the ties to his family are too strong and too numerous. Alan is apparently no friend of the concept of self-defense, based on his battles to keep the Dickey man who had to defend against two belligerent drunks by fatally shooting one in prison weeks or maybe even months more than he should have been there, after the SC Supreme Court overturned Dickey’s conviction.
Alan has got to go in 2014. We don’t need anymore Wilsons clogging up the political arena than we already have.
You are on target!
Knotts …Alan’s mother ran his campaigns and Joe Wilson campaigned for him!
Ala’s father Joe needs Metts in Lex. County.
Peeler’s worked for Alan and in Congressmans Joe’s office/ ties to Toal.
Grand Jurys in this State are used for political cover and political payback.
Alan wants this off his A$$ and the Grand Jury is the perfect vehicle. He does not want to indict Harrell and he does not want to piss off Haley. He is betweena rock and a hard place looking for a way out!
“…got to go?”
What planet are you living on?Wilson will win the Republican primary with NO opposition.
The Democrat?.Oh they might find some lawyer looking for a little free publicity.Wilson will bury him with the votes of the non Republican Republicans who regularly post here and the support of Fits to boot,REGARDLESS of what happens with this Harrell thing.
“Either he will emerge as a conquering crusader in the fight against South Carolina’s corrupt status quo – taking down the most powerful elected official in the Palmetto State for a host of serious abuses – or he will be forever remembered as the guy who couldn’t indict a ham sandwich.”
Nope. Harrell will simply claim an innocent slip – up in his recordkeeping / paperwork / arbitrary bureaucratic fine print comprehension. Then Charleston County voters will fall right back into line, and send him to Columbia with a hearty pat on the back. “You know Bobby, they’re just out to getcha because you’re standin’ up for us down here.”
Whoa.BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES .Modern Classic.Wolfe’s best book,by far.
Yeah,be careful.That Haute cuisine can get kinda nasty,when you’re having your 1st heart attack,and those,Wilson’s…My lips are sealed:::::::::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPAREhfnols
That was cool! Their style reminds me a little of “New Order”.
Sadly, Alan is a puppet of the Quinn’s. I will not go so far as to say he is paid, as this editor frequently is for writing or not writing about subjects. Alan is just simple and easily influenced. Everyone knows who is behind this and that is Richard Quinn and Assoc. They have never gotten over losing their darling Harrison to Harrell in the Speaker’s race. And Rick couldn’t handle not being an “important” state politician, so he moved districts to get back in after being beaten so badly by Ballentine. Pathetic. These boys don’t know what to do with themselves when they aren’t in office anymore. But Rick is back and has been determined to sit in a bar somewhere, (still the one his Daddy bought just to keep him occupied and away from his political business he has no accumine for?) and also away from his own wife and children to plot.What goes around comes around to Rick and all of his cronies. Including the Wilson’s.
Two words: Renee Dudley
Boy I miss Renee – she is the only reporter in the state with any balls and she is a woman. She would go after the truth – no matter the cost and would not give up. The media in the state of SC are all Spineless pawns now and they bow down to Nikki Haley – sad – we will never get the truth without somebody like Renee around.
That’s a mighty fine sammich you have there,
Be a shamed if something happened to it….
*momp momp momp*
You create your own destiny.
http://makingandtaking.com/your-destiny-predator-or-prey/
That dude has all the answers, huh? I wonder if he’s rich?
I gave up on him with this one:
http://makingandtaking.com/5-reasons-quit-watching-internet-porn/
Wilson’s destiny in the mind of FITS.
While we’d all like to believe our self-conceived little battles are significant on the larger scale, fulfilling reality as FITS imagines it, is more likely a better definition of “delusional.”
And the truth is: it’s more about FITS’ destiny as some sort of purveyor of normal for a band of ignorant, and very manipulated liberals. Those who put stock in FITS simply want to be different, w/ no ability of uniqueness, except what their poor leaders feed them…..
Mrs. Prussy
Alan Wilson got me on his train last month when he backed Scarlett Wilson against Don Beatty (and Jean Toal.) Since Jakie Knotts is out of the picture, the Wilsons can freely let Toal go. Letting the corrupt Toal go is something Vincent Sheheen has not been able to do. He doesn’t see yet how much it would help him to do so.
Anyone who backs Scarlet Wilson is just probably as dirty as she is.
May be, But none are as dirty as Toal, Leatherman and Harrell.
Hmm… When I first read about this I thought Wilson was just looking for cover.
Yay!! This isn’t like in all those articles FITS wrote about legislators,
judges, and SLED scheming dirty secret deals behind our backs. Wilson has some magic to change the entire culture of corruption. He’s making sure nobody is secretly doing what they usually do, and everybody is honestly doing what they never do.
Rah Rah!! The outcome of this investigation can be trusted to be ethical, competent, and accurate. FITS says Wilson knows how to talk nice, like a boy scout. Who cares what he really does?
So what he hasn’t disclosed any evidence of corruption fighting, like he’s doing with the bigger
budget legislators gave him for the Public Integrity Unit. His words are pretty.
Yep Yep.
Harrell now is facing many years in prison. Not the SC Department of Corrections (SCDC), for we know he will never spend a single day there. But a federal prison he will.
Harrell’s attorney of record in this matter is former federal prosecutor Bart Daniels. Daniels led the case in “Operation Lost Trust” that once brought down the state house over vote buying, inter alia. But there is nothing Daniels can do to save Harrell at this juncture unless, of course, he engages within – or plays along with – both unethical and criminal/illegal conduct.
Wilson has Harrell by the nut sack now. And the entire population of South Carolina will know all about this matter by the end of this month. News is spreading like an out of control flu virus. With that said, Wilson better not let Harrell off the hook and be using the grand jury to get himself off the hook either. If he does allow Harrell to go on with being indicted for felonies, Wilson cuts his own throat and destroys his own character. I might add here, that Wilson needs to nail down all the doors to his office and seal all the cracks. In other words, he needs to admonish all of his staff and employees, that if they leak anything out to Harrell’s cronies, that they will be stripped of everything they own and end up in the SC Dept. of Corrections. What I am saying here is, Harrell will use whatever means necessary now to try and avoid going to prison. But again, he will not be going to SCDC, however, I feel pretty sure he will be facing federal charges in the near future.
To Att Gen Wilson: Don’t screw this up. You have to do what must be done. Indict House Speaker Bobby Harrell. It is the right and just thing to do. The corruption in this state must be cleaned out. And you take him down, the rest will go with him. The people of South Carolina are not asking for that. They are DEMANDING IT. It is your job under YOUR oath of office, to do just that. Be brave. You are fighting a nasty, cesspool of corruption. Do the right thing. The people are behind you more than you might know.
Shit… Harrell will only go to prison after all the Lexington Mafia members are convicted. All will die of old age before any of that happens.
Wilson has “character?”
Alan must ask himself WWAESD, what would an eagle scout do? If Alan is a true eagle scout, he will destroy Harrell.
It’s a foul wind that blows from the stockyard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9D414QVwfU
It’s a damned if I do damned if I don’t win-win for Wilson. Damned if he dismisses, damned if he sends it to the GJ, but he wins either way. If the GJ convicts, he looks like a good cop. If the GJ acquits, it’s their decision and he’s off the hook.
While the background chatter, which FITS in toto seems frozen out on, is that grand jury acquittal should put this to rest under the caveats of double jeopardy
Double jeopardy? Dude, I don’t know what case law you base that on, but obviously not anything in the US Supreme Ct reporter or CJS.
Press release coming —– Feds open investigation into Harrell, et al.