Several SC lawmakers are pushing bills they say would help put an end to corrupt legislators and lobbyists using their public positions for private gain.
Anti-racketeering proposals before the S. C. General Assembly would target corrupt lawmakers and lobbyists who illegally buy and sell influence, supporters said Wednesday.
“This building is rampant with corruption,” Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, said at the State House, joined by the anti-racketeering bill’s sponsors.
One floor up, in the great lobby that separates the S. C. House and state Senate, dozens of lobbyists, and current and former lawmakers milled about, greeting each other and talking shop.
However, Bryant said the S. C. Anti-Racketeering Act would target business as usual, giving prosecutors a set of rules to use to target illegal conspiracies to buy and sell influence.
The proposed law, only introduced last week, has not passed either the House or Senate, meaning it has no chance of passing this year.
If the proposal becomes law, it will need to be accompanied by substantial funding to pay for racketeering investigations — at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, Bryant and state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, acknowledged.
Racketeering investigations can be very expensive.
For example, a high-profile investigation of former S. C. State University trustees chair Jonathan Pinson cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and involved at least a half-dozen FBI agents and four federal prosecutors. Pinson was convicted in 2014 after a three-year-long investigation.
Bryant, who is running for governor as a Republican, specifically cited the ongoing State House corruption investigation, being conducted by state special prosecutor David Pascoe, as the reason he is supporting the anti-racketeering bill.
▪ This story will be updated to include more of Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant’s comments.
