Earlier this afternoon, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster likely ended the Mark Sanford affair by clearing Sanford of criminal wrongdoing.
The Attorney General’s office conducted a five-month investigation of Sanford, which included new interviews Sanford’s staff, Commerce Department officials, a Department of Natural Resources pilot and an attorney with the Republican Governors Association. The investigation followed a S.C. State Ethics Commission probe that resulted in 37 civil charges against the govenor.
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McMaster, a Republican candidate for governor, said the "evidence does not support, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the governor knowingly, willfully and intentionally set out to break state law.
"The time has come for our state to put this controversy behind us and move on."
McMaster thinks Sanford broke the spirit of the law by using state planes for non-official business--including family trips. All the more reason McMaster should have punted to a special prosecutor. But sadly, he didn't.
McMaster had faced calls to appoint a special prosecutor from the very beginning because his own bid for governor may have created a conflict of interest. However, he claims state law doesn't allow him to do so. Um, aren't special prosecutors supposed to handle politically explosive cases like this?
One other bizarre tidbit from this is worth noting. First, McMaster claims that the term "official business" is ill-defined, and that anytime Snaford is within the borders of the state he is within his official jurisdiction. So how does that explain him going AWOL for 72 hours to visit his honey in Argentina--and fail to transfer power as he was supposed to do?
All told, one can only conclude that McMaster didn't have the guts to pursue this the way he should have.