Reforming the Utah Attorney General’s office.

For 20 years and through the past three administrations, Utah Attorney Generals have engaged in a practice of taking political contributions from individuals and entities with questionable histories. Individuals and business entities that any political figure, especially one who holds himself out as “Utah’s Top Prosecutor” should be wary of. It is well known that one way to get the AG’s office to “look the other way” is to make a political contribution to the AG candidate. One would hope that after two prosecutions, the policy would stop. Sadly, those prosecutions were not only poorly conducted, but have apparently had no deterrence. 

The Attorney General has a duty to remain objective and independent.  The Attorney General must treat every investigation and prosecution fairly and honestly and recognize when political contributions have even an appearance of impropriety.  This isn’t a difficult thing to recognize. At minimum, the top prosecutor of this state must never keep “dirty” money. (See: Reyes Uses Money Tied to Fraud, a telling piece by the Salt Lake Tribune last year.)

None of our recent AGs have ever personally prosecuted, defended or represented victims of fraud and deceit. That may be one reason they each have “played dumb” when accepting questionable campaign contributions. I have 38 years of experience doing all of those things. I know fraud. I recognize situations when consumers are being preyed upon; when the vulnerable are being conned. I know when a check comes with the expectation of a favor. In the last two decades, the AG’s office has been open for business (see: Utah AG Moonlighting as Shady Tech Company Lobbyist, as well as Attorney General bypasses normal procurement process to sign contract for massive surveillance platform).

It is time for the era of “pay to play” to stop.