Gov. Deal's cover up . . . and now the smoking gun. Anyone listening?

Nobody much seems to care -- although it should be the smoking gun, and Jason Carter is trying hard to make it a major campaign issue in his race to unseat Gov. Nathan Deal.   The AJC has been a bulldog on the case, and they are staying on it.   But where is the general outrage against Gov. Deal?

The story is about the investigation of campaign finance misuse of then newly inaugurated governor Nathan Deal, the pretty obvious interference in the ethics investigation of those charges, and then the cover-up . . .  it's always the cover-up.   And now the smoking gun has just turned up to blow the cover.

If anyone will listen.

Here is the chronology:
January 2010.   Nathan Deal sworn in as governor.  Shortly thereafter, a number of complaints about the Deal campaign's campaign finances were filed with State Ethics Commission.

Spring of 2011.    Ethics Commission Executive Secretary Stacey Kalberman and her assistant, Sherilyn Streicker, were preparing subpoenas for their investigation of the claims against the Deal campaign.    Word about this got out, and suddenly the commission was said to be under dire budgetary constraints.   Kalberman was told her salary would be cut by 30%, and her assistant's job was eliminated.    The commission lawyer was also fired, with claims that she had smelled of alcohol in the office.   

Kalberman resigned.  It turned out that her replacement had already been chosen, even before she was told about the salary decrease.   A key member of Deal's staff was involved in recruiting Holly LaBerge to replace her.

In the ensuing year, LaBerge brought the investigation to a quick resolution, slapping the Deal campaign with only a small fine and no public hearings, despite claims that seemed to warrant much more thorough investigation.

While working toward that settlement, an office worker was fired for refusing to follow LaBerge's order to remove and/or alter documents in the investigation file.   Another worker has said that he heard LaBerge say that Gov. Deal "owes me one" for taking care of the investigation.  And then the commission's only lawyer was fired on . . . maybe . . . trumped up charges. 

Deal's office has insisted that the commission is entirely independent, and that he had nothing to do with all this.

2013-2014.   Kalberman and Streicker sued over their job losses.  The Kalberman case was tried in court, and the jury needed only two and a half hours to render a verdict in Kalberman's favor.  One juror said the verdict was quick and unanimous -- no one doubted Kalberman's story -- but it took them a little time to decide on the $700,000 award to Kalberman.    Since then, settlements with the three others plus expenses bring the total -- to be paid by Georgia taxpayers -- to at least $3 million.

NOW, THAT'S ONLY THE BACKGROUND.   THE BIG NEWS THIS WEEK IS THIS:

July 15, 2014.  The Atlanta Journal Constitution released a memo it has just received under an Open Records request showing that Gov. Deal's top aides in 2012 had pressured LaBerge to settle these cases against the governor's campaign.    Despite early requests for all documents related to the cases, this memo had not been released to the lawyers for Kalberman and others.  

Quotes are from the AJC July 15th article:  The memo was drafted by LaBerge in January 2012  "documenting calls and messages from Deal chief of staff Chris Riley and chief counsel Ryan Teague.  The pair had contacted her several times about the Deal complaints just days before the commission was to act on them.  LaBerge says in the memo that Teague threatened the agency if she didn't move to settle the cases without a public hearing." 

LaBerge also says she turned over this memo, along with other documents, to Attorney General, Sam Olens, who officially represented LaBerge in her official capacity.  However, Olens did not include the memo with other documents passed on to the plaintiff's' lawyers in the discovery process of the Kalberman and Streicker cases.   His lame excuse now is that their requests were not specificly tailored to include this (unknown at the time) memo, even though their request was for "the entire Deal investigation file."

Despite this now-obvious cover-up involving the Attorney General, as well as Deal's two top aides, Kalberman easily won her case.   And it was so compelling that prosecutors decided to settle with the others without a trial.  Of course the settlements without trial also keeps the story from being played out again at the height of the fall campaign.

And Deal's response?   "Why didn't [the memo] come out until now?   Why were we all kept in the dark?  I think it further proves they are an independent agency and my office had no personal knowledge."

Excuse me, governor.   We're talking about what YOUR TWO TOP AIDES and the state AG  allegedly did to interfere with this investigation against you.   How is it that someone else is responsible for keeping YOU in the dark?    And why have you not fired these two aides?

Unbelievable.   Unbelievable, brazen chicanery from the Deal camp.   Unbelievable apathy and pitiful lack of outrage if the voters give this man another four years to feed at the public trough.

Ralph