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Join the SC Progressive Policy Institute on Sunday, Nov. 5, 6-7pm in-person and on Zoom, as SC ethics watchdog Dr. John Crangle connects the facts in an explosive case of corruption in all three branches of state government.
Crangle filed a lawsuit in 2021 charging state Attorney General Alan Wilson with illegally and unilaterally awarding $75 million dollars of a $600 million class action settlement to two small law firms in Columbia. Crangle asserts that the amount was grossly excessive and should have been for actual work rather than a percentage of the award.
Wilson hired Columbia-based Willoughby law firm to help represent the state against the US Dept. of Energy for violating an agreement to remove tons of plutonium from America’s Bomb Plant in Aiken. The Willoughby law firm is represented by Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Todd Rutherford.
After filing the case, Crangle went before Circuit Judge Alison Lee to prevent the funds from being transferred prior to determining the legality of the fee. AG Wilson ordered the State Treasurer’s Office to send an expedited $75 million wire transfer to the Willoughby law firm the day before the hearing. The judge denied the request for a temporary injunction, and the money remains publicly unaccounted for.
The AG’s lawyers and Rutherford, representing the law firms who were to receive the fee, then went court to argue that Crangle did not have standing to sue the Attorney General. Judge R. Kirk Griffin agreed, and dismissed the case. Crangle appealed to the State Supreme Court, which agreed the case should be heard and sent it back to Circuit Court for a hearing on the merits. It was assigned to Circuit Judge Daniel McLeod Coble, son of former Columbia mayor Bob Coble and grandson the late state Attorney General Dan McLeod.
On Oct. 12, John Monk, the only reporter following this case, wrote in The State, “the Justices ruled that Crangle had raised a substantial question of public interest about the attorney general’s authority to award legal fees and were therefore entitled to sue Wilson and the law firms. Moreover, Wilson had five other outstanding fee agreements, so the same controversy might arise in the future, justices said.”
On Oct. 24, after hearing arguments from Rutherford, Judge Coble ruled that in spite of being ordered by the State Supreme Court to hold a hearing for Crangle to argue the merits of his case, Crangle did not have the standing to allow him to challenge the Attorney General’s decision. Coble went so far as to scold the justices for presuming their authority to overrule the executive branch on the matter.
Crangle has appealed Coble’s decision not to allow the case to proceed to the Supreme Court. Informed observers predict the Supreme Court will again side with Crangle, but not before the Nov. 6 hearing of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission on the re-election of Coble to the uncontested seat for a full six-year term.
Crangle is quick to point out that the attorneys signed up by the Attorney General are not at fault for accepting these jobs. It is Crangle’s contention that AG Wilson is violating his public trust in selecting private attorneys, paid with large contingency fees with funds that should be sent to the state’s general fund and allocated by the General Assembly. It is also apparent that the Justices share Crangle’s concerns.
Crangle says the case is a glaring example of corruption and collusion that needs to be rooted out, warning, “Attorney General Wilson’s selection of political heavyweights of both political parties to receive potentially millions of dollars gives the appearance that he is investing the peoples’ money in his upcoming campaign for governor.”
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The most immediate chapter of this slow-moving, high-stakes, scandal comes with Rutherford’s upcoming Nov. 6 vote on the re-election of Judge Cobleto his first six-year term.
On Oct. 21, Rutherford’s practice of law, in front of judges he elects, prompted nine of the state’s 16 Judicial District Solicitorsto petition House and Senate leaders to remove Rutherford from the Judicial Merit Selection Commission. In fact, a majority of the state’s elected criminal prosecutors based their request on a “pattern” of Rutherford “obtaining unprecedented, and in some instances patently unlawful, outcomes in criminal matters.”
Lawyer-legislators representing clients before judges they elect is unique to South Carolina and Virginia,the only states that allow the practice.
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The national lawsuits that Attorney General Wilson has signed on to — and selected the attorneys to participate in the fees he establishes — can be found at: https://www.scag.gov/litigation-retention-agreements/
Class action lawsuits in the works that Wilson has chosen both Republican and Democratic power brokers to receive fees includes:
• Purdue Pharma for damages from opioid addiction: Former Democratic Senator Marlon Kimpson with the powerful Motley Rice law firm resigned his senate seat in March to take a job with the Biden Administration. Former Republican Senator Paul Thurmond, youngest son of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, former Democratic Representative and gubernatorial candidate James Smith
• Pharmacy Benefit Managers for manipulating prices and access to prescription drugs: Speaker of the SC House of Representatives, Murrell Smith
• Insulin Manufacturers for manipulating prices of insulin: Speaker of the SC House of Representatives, Murrell Smith, and former Chair of the State Republican Party John Simmons.
• Google Advertising Technology: The Chicago law firm that filed the initial suit against Google was quickly joined by two national class action firms in New Orleans and Houston and two days later by Former SC Republican Attorney General Charlie Condon.
• Numerous giant chemical companies making “forever chemicals”: Former SC Democratic Senator and gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen
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Links to John Monk’s coverage of Crangle’s attempts to expose and stop the Attorney General’s political slush fund:
Well-known Columbia lawyer likely winner in race to replace SC Judge Casey Manning BY JOHN MONK UPDATED JANUARY 28, 2022 8:13 PM
https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article257793243.html
Columbia lawyer Coble wins race to replace retiring veteran SC Judge Casey Manning BY JOHN MONK UPDATED FEBRUARY 02, 2022 3:00 PM
https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article257961168.html
Dispute over $75M in legal fees SC attorney general paid to law firms now in judge’s hands BY JOHN MONK OCTOBER 12, 2023 5:00 AM
https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article280397419.html
Solicitors ask SC House speaker to remove lawmaker from judge selection group BY JAVON L. HARRIS: Oct. 24
https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article280734035.html
SC judge upholds Attorney General Wilson’s right to give $75 million to private law firms BY JOHN MONK OCTOBER 26, 2023 11:11 AM
https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article280895973.html