A Long-Running Scandal and a Senate Pick Stir Corruption Qs
Feb 20, 2017 14:05:41 GMT -6
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Post by ck4829 on Feb 20, 2017 14:05:41 GMT -6
A Long-Running Scandal and a Senate Pick Stir Corruption Questions in Alabama
When Luther Strange ran for attorney general in this scandal-weary state in 2010, he appeared in an advertisement that spoke darkly of the Alabama capital’s “corruption, grand jury investigations, insider deals, abusing the public trust.”
Mr. Strange won that year’s general election easily, and then another one in 2014. But since ascending to the United States Senate this month, he has found his popularity threatened and his fellow Republicans troubled, largely because he accepted the appointment of Gov. Robert J. Bentley, a subject of an active investigation that the new senator spent months overseeing.
A startling number of people in and around the State House openly suspect, but lack evidence to prove, that part of Mr. Bentley’s reason for appointing Mr. Strange to the Senate was to try to undermine the inquiry.
Beyond clouding Mr. Strange’s early days in the Senate, the appointment to fill the seat of Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s new attorney general, has exacerbated the controversy that has publicly swirled around Mr. Bentley for almost a year. The maze of scandal — featuring sexually explicit conversations and the sudden firing of a top law enforcement official, and consuming hundreds of thousands of dollars from public and political bank accounts — has led to swelling demands for the impeachment of the governor, a Republican.
“It’s like every time we turn around, there’s somebody else who is potentially going to jail, or being too greedy, or being too arrogant,” said State Representative Ed Henry, a Republican who has pushed for Mr. Bentley’s ouster.
Mr. Bentley, 74, who did not agree to an interview request, has been on the defensive for nearly a year. In March, Spencer Collier, whom Mr. Bentley had fired as the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, accused the governor of having an affair with an aide and said the aide had served as the “de facto governor.”
www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/alabama-senate-pick-corruption-questions.html?_r=0
Read more: burnoatus.freeforums.net/thread/586/long-running-scandal-senate-corruption?page=1&scrollTo=870#ixzz4ZG2tXyoo
When Luther Strange ran for attorney general in this scandal-weary state in 2010, he appeared in an advertisement that spoke darkly of the Alabama capital’s “corruption, grand jury investigations, insider deals, abusing the public trust.”
Mr. Strange won that year’s general election easily, and then another one in 2014. But since ascending to the United States Senate this month, he has found his popularity threatened and his fellow Republicans troubled, largely because he accepted the appointment of Gov. Robert J. Bentley, a subject of an active investigation that the new senator spent months overseeing.
A startling number of people in and around the State House openly suspect, but lack evidence to prove, that part of Mr. Bentley’s reason for appointing Mr. Strange to the Senate was to try to undermine the inquiry.
Beyond clouding Mr. Strange’s early days in the Senate, the appointment to fill the seat of Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s new attorney general, has exacerbated the controversy that has publicly swirled around Mr. Bentley for almost a year. The maze of scandal — featuring sexually explicit conversations and the sudden firing of a top law enforcement official, and consuming hundreds of thousands of dollars from public and political bank accounts — has led to swelling demands for the impeachment of the governor, a Republican.
“It’s like every time we turn around, there’s somebody else who is potentially going to jail, or being too greedy, or being too arrogant,” said State Representative Ed Henry, a Republican who has pushed for Mr. Bentley’s ouster.
Mr. Bentley, 74, who did not agree to an interview request, has been on the defensive for nearly a year. In March, Spencer Collier, whom Mr. Bentley had fired as the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, accused the governor of having an affair with an aide and said the aide had served as the “de facto governor.”
www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/alabama-senate-pick-corruption-questions.html?_r=0
Read more: burnoatus.freeforums.net/thread/586/long-running-scandal-senate-corruption?page=1&scrollTo=870#ixzz4ZG2tXyoo