#ncga: The FBI? (WTF?) (OMG.)
Speaker Tim Moore’s faaaaaaaaaaaaaaavorite TV reporter is at it again. 
Apparently, some folks at the federal level (who carry handcuffs for a living) are interested in what some folks at the state government level are doing:
The FBI has started an inquiry into accusations made against top Republican in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Multiple sources confirm to On Your Side Investigates that at least one House Republican has been contacted by the FBI to schedule a meeting next week to discuss accusations made against senior House leadership, including Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland).
The questions from federal investigators come after a series of reports from On Your Side Investigates that uncovered possible violations of campaign finance law by Moore and others.
Our questions started with un-itemized credit card charges Moore listed on his campaign finance disclosure forms between 2007 and 2015. Moore’s campaign has amended reports dating back to 2010 following an audit by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
His campaign has yet to amend the balance of the reports that list un-itemized credit card charges.
State law allows candidates to use credit cards to pay for campaign expenses but the charges must be itemized. Moore was a sponsor of the 2006 bill that implemented the requirements to itemize credit card charges.[…]
Others? Who could he talking about? :
[…] Subsequent reports from On Your Side Investigates have focused on thousands of dollars in rent payments Moore’s campaign has made to a company solely owned by the lawmaker and, most recently, a contribution he accepted from a state contractor who donated $1,000 during session.
The contractor also donated to Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), who, as House Rules Chairman, is a top lieutenant of Moore.
Legislative records show Lewis attempted to amend legislation this session to benefit the donor following his contributions to both Moore and Lewis.
Lewis is also the subject of an ethics complaint filed by a fellow House Republican, Rep. George Cleveland of Onslow County. Cleveland’s complaint involves last-minute changes Lewis made to the state budget bill that benefited a constituent and campaign donor.[…]
*Drip. Drip. Drip.*
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Jones Street needs more than a change in personnel. It needs a change in culture — in SOP.
I’ll never forget what one former long-serving legislator told me once. He said he made a point of going home — not to a hotel or rented apartment, but to his actual residence — 
EVERY NIGHT after session. He said he advised younger rookies to do the same thing. It was a lot of driving for him, he said, but it was worth it.
“There is a lot of trouble to get into in that town,” he told me. “Drugs, alcohol, women who are not your wife, and cash, cash cash, are constantly being dangled in front of you as temptations. And that’s just during work hours. You should see what happens after dark. My thought was to get my legislative business done, and then get out of Dodge and back to my family ASAP. I’ve seen that environment take down many a good person over the years. It wasn’t going to get me.”
And it didn’t, thank goodness. He left Raleigh on his own accord.
What did the state BOE say after last review? Or is this info new? It occurs to me the rent business is going to be fine. Oh and who is this anonymous source? That’s a dangerous question. FBI investigations that go the distance usually expose them and I’m guessing that wouldn’t be good.
The fight for the speaker’s gavel is going to be nasty….
The stench of this was always likely to attract Democrat prosecutors, and the only real question was which ones, the state level, instigated by Cooper, or the feds from the Obama crowd. The feds have gone on a spree of prosecuting state legislators in the past few years, so they would be the usual suspects. However, with Cooper running for governor, the state prosecutors in this instance were always a significant prospect as well.
North Carolina is a swing state and the smell of blood in its politics is always going to be a temptation for prosecutions of political adversaries. Smart politicians do not do things that create those openings, but it looks like in our House leadership, we have not had smart politicians. That is especially true when most of the prosecutors who could jump in are on the other side of the political fence, as they are here.
Look for the indictments to be timed politically to impact the 2016 elections, say September or October. What Republicans have to be concerned about is that they would likely impact races other than those of the idiots who got themselves in this position through their own arrogance and stupidity.
We need to be proactive to minimize this political threat by working ourselves to put those involved out to pasture before the storm hits. We can only hope that the effort to change the Speaker is successful. The state executive committee can go ahead and remove Lewis as National Committeeman in a week, and the primary voters in his district can make him a lame duck there. We have already had one vulnerable state senator who was a likely prosecution target do the right thing for the party, fall on his sword, and withdraw from the race. One would hope that those in the same position in the House would do so as well, but if not, party activists should give them the push.
We do not need to go into the November election with storm clouds of corruption swirling around sitting party leaders.
1. why are the “feds” getting involved IF this was a minor “state” violation ?
2. No mater what party has had control of either chamber at the statehouse…Jones Street.like K Street in DC thinks and feels we,the people no longer matter or are important. If that were not so…then why go ahead and spend 2 billion a year on goods,services and etc for Illegal aliens as the legislature has for the last 3 fiscal years for then ? Teachers could have had bigger & better raises or at the very least some “expansion” of Medicaid …but i’m just an registered unaffiliated who has no love nor trust of either party since 1992 when i sadly had to move here
Over the past few years, the feds have been prosecuting state legislators in various states for corruption. And given that the federal prosecutors are appointed by Obama, almost all of whose appointees are political hacks, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that once they sniffed a little blood in this one, they would come a runnin’.
If Republicans move to clean up this mess ourselves by removing the politicians who did these stupid things, then we can minimize the politicial damage. If not, it may not be pretty in November.
BTW, you seem to be someone who would logically be an independent, as you seem to be conservative on immigration and very liberal on Obamacare, supporting the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which is also a massive welfare expansion.
“And given that the federal prosecutors are appointed by Obama, almost all of whose appointees are political hacks”
Why would the Unqualified Community Organizer sic his federal prosecutors on Republican legislators in the states? Just part of Hussein’s “fundamental transformation” of America!