Nightside's Ethan Millard just announced that current Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff will not investigate the complaint filed by Republican State Treasurer candidate Richard Ellis.In the complaint filed by Ellis to Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert Ellis alleges that his primary opponent, Rep. Mark Walker of Sandy, bribed Mr. Ellis to drop out of the race.
Tonight the Attorney General's office basically stated that bribery isn't a crime if you lose the election when his office stated the the point was moot because Walker lost his primary race.
Mr. Shurtleff's disregard for ethics, justice, and public service is indefensible, and he needs to be held accountable, as do those who he is protecting.
6 comments:
Now, Rob… aren't you being a little harsh? It's the AGs job to do a little triage… and prosecuting a case that didn't appear to have legs on it (from the accounts I've read, it seemed pretty light in the evidence department) seems like a non-starter.
On the other hand, Silus, isn't it clearly detailed in the AG's job description to investigate to a conclusion, not declare such serious allegations "moot"?
The arbitrary determination that this case "didn't have legs" seems quite naive in the face of the allegations, should they indeed prove true.
The real question is, who do we contact to voice our complaints? The House Ethics Committee's investigation is separate, right?
It seems to me that since the penalty Walker would face if found to be guilty of the charge is removal from office the point really is moot. He isn't going to hold elected office any time soon.
The AG is wrong to not investigate this. Doesn't mean he needs to prosecute if he he can't prove anything, but my guess is the Lt. Gov. new Shurtleff was going to do this and that's why he waited. Can you imagine how pissed people would be if Shurtleff had said this during the primary?
This is pretty unfair to both candidates too. What if Walker is innocent? The world will never know.
Looks like there may still be a criminal investigation. My guess is Shurty will kill that too.
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