the taskk force, without referral from the Ethics Commission, to review information and see if a criminal investigation from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is warranted. Wilson spokesman Mark Plowden said three prosecutors and one longtime FBI and SLED agent are sifting through the information on top of their normal case load at the Attorney General’s office. One of the team members also worked on the investigation of former Gov. Mark Sanford, who paid the state’s highest Ethics Commission fine in 2009. There is no timeline on reaching a decision, but Plowden said the large amount information to review is expected to grow.
The task force will remain the Wilson’s go-to group to handle public corruption and campaign fraud issues in the future. State Democratic chairman Dick Harpootlian said Friday that the Attorney General already has enough information to proceed to a grand jury, since Ard already admitted to spending campaign funds on personal items. The former prosecutor claimed that by creating the task force, Wilson is dragging his feet in prosecuting Ard. But Plowden said the task force has to review all the material they find before making a decision and that the Attorney General’s office “is not a drive-through window for justice.” “As Chairman of the Democrat Party, Dick Harpootlian's job is to play partisan politics with every issue that comes along,” Plowden said. “ Attorney General Wilson does not have that luxury.”
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