Charleston attorney asks Holder to take up SC House speaker ethics case

By Barton Swaim | The Nerve

The ongoing story of Attorney General Alan Wilson’s grand jury investigation of House Speaker Bobby Harrell has sparked editorials, news articles, blog posts, and innumerable outraged tweets, Facebook posts, and web comments. Everyone’s got an opinion. Rarely does a story about state government that doesn’t involve the governor attract so much attention.

Now, as I’ve just learned, the Harrell story has prompted a Charleston attorney to ask the nation’s top prosecutor – Attorney General Eric Holder – for a federal investigation of the House Speaker. Attorney Dusty Rhoades, who is not involved with the Harrell case, says he sent the request earlier this month.

“The Federal investigation in the 80s, Operation Lost Trust, regarding S.C. legislators was successful,” Rhoades said in his May 15 letter. “It appears to me, clearly, that the current problems investigating allegations of corruption are being decided by people with obvious conflicts of interest.”

at The Nerve.