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by WILL FOLKS
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A day after announcing his candidacy for attorney general of South Carolina, veteran solicitor David Pascoe stormed into the S.C. State House and made it abundantly clear exactly what he intended to do if the voters of the Palmetto State entrust him with statewide prosecutorial authority.
“I’m going to end the corruption on day one,” Pascoe said, pointing to the two chambers of the S.C. General Assembly and putting the lawyer-legislators who control those chambers on notice.
“I’m coming back to Columbia to finish what I started,” Pascoe said, referring to his starring role in a 2018 anti-corruption investigation dubbed Probegate. That inquiry led to the imprisonment of a powerful code commissioner and the resignations of multiple ranking leaders in the S.C. House and State Senate.
The faces of the politicians he prosecuted flanked Pascoe as he addressed reporters – detailing his plans to clean up the notoriously corrupt culture of Columbia.
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Unfortunately, Pascoe’s Probegate ended on a sour note as many of the special interests implicated in the scandal – including the powerful trial lawyer lobby – were let off scot-free.
“I wanted to go much further,” Pascoe said, referring to the investigation. “The supreme court said ‘no.'”
According to Pascoe, if elected attorney general he will finish the job – and endeavor to root out corruption at all levels of government (municipal, school board, county and state).
“I have no desire to make friends in Columbia,” Pascoe said, a statement he buttressed with an aggressive policy agenda aimed at stripping influence from powerful lawyer-legislators.
“Judge me by my enemies,” Pascoe added. “Judge me by my fruits.”
How does the veteran S.C. first circuit solicitor intend to accomplish his lofty anti-corruption objectives?
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For starters, Pascoe vowed to launch a new public corruption unit (PCU) within the attorney general’s office – a team of prosecutors and investigators dedicated to poring through media reports, citizen tips, watchdog group complaints and formal investigatory requests.
“Often, what I’ve learned, is the crime is right under our noses,” Pascoe said.
Pascoe also took direct aim at lawyer-legislators by vowing to terminate any current retention agreements between their firms and the attorney general’s office. He also vowed to never hire them back as long as he was in office. Additionally, Pascoe proposed lawyer-legislators be prohibited from handling cases involving the S.C. Insurance Reserve Fund (SCIRF).
Most critically, though, Pascoe embraced long-overdue judicial selection reform – something FITSNews has been championing for years.
“The cornerstone of any Republic is to have three independent branches of government: the executive, the legislative and the judicial,” Pascoe said. “You cannot have an independent judicial branch when they are solely hired, fired and funded by the legislative branch.”
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Pascoe was also an early supporter of judicial reform, penning a column on this site several years ago proposing an immediate fix while denouncing “a system that is clouded in secrecy and often dictates the outcome before legislators cast a single public vote.”
During a question-and-answer session with reporters following his announcement, Pascoe addressed recent allegations involving state senator Matt Leber. While he declined to comment specifically on Leber’s case, he did address one of the specific facts tied to his campaign disclosures – the fact Leber purchased a suit for himself out of his campaign account.
“If it is true that a legislator is buying suits and paying for other things for personal use, yes they should be investigated – and not only should they be investigated, if they actually did it – if the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt that they did it – they should be prosecuted,” Pascoe said.
Following his press conference, Pascoe joined this author for a sit-down interview in our studios in northwest Columbia, S.C. Stay tuned for that conversation…
BANNER VIA: DYLAN NOLAN
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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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7 comments
Mr. Pascoe will wipe the floor with angry old “do you know who I am?” Goldfinch. Finally a candidate to be excited about. David Pascoe for Governor in 2030.
Alan Wilson is boring and unelectable.
We can only dream he will actually clean up corrupt Columbia. JMSC has been running our courts for far too long.
JMSC?
Whoever gets the AG job, they are going to have to lobby hard to change the state’s whistleblower law, because the most anyone can get for blowing the whistle on fraud waste and abuse in state government is about $2,000. It’s a pittance, and not worth losing one’s job over – despite the fact that the law says you should be able to get your job back. Why? Because the recovery of legal fees to enforce the provision to get you job back is also capped at 10k for attorneys fees at trial and 5k on appeal. A pathetic pittance. The legal battle against the State to enforce that would basically bankrupt them. The average state employee is never going to blow the whistle unless it involves federal money, where the reward structure and protections are far, far greater. And the fact that the Legislature has not changed these laws since 1988 tells you all you need to know- they really don’t want to enable anyone to call out the fraud, waste, and abuse.
Another candidate to be excited about. Yes!! David for AG and Nancy for Governor. I’m here for it.
Batshit crazy Nancy? No thanks.