A county prosecutor in Utah said on Wednesday that he is currently investigating Senator Harry Reid in regards to a pay-to-play scheme including former Utah attorneys general John Swallow and John Shurtleff.
Republican Troy Rawlings has served as Davis County’s top prosecutor since 2007. He told the press that he is looking into allegations involving Democratic Senator Harry Reid. And while he wouldn’t extrapolate on the allegations, he did say that claims are based on info from witnesses in the case including the two attorneys general.
Senator Reid, who has yet to be charged, is furious with Rawlings. According to Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman, Rawlings is using “Senator Reid’s name to generate attention to himself and advance his political career, so every few months he seeks headlines by floating the same unsubstantiated allegations.”
The case isn’t new. Reid has continually denied allegations since 2013 when a businessman said that a former attorney general in Utah arranged a deal to pay Senator Reid to extinguish a federal investigation into a software company.
Rawlings said only that he is doing his duty and has been given permission to investigate potential statewide crimes linked to the case. While he is limited as to what he can and cannot say, he did inform newspapers about his investigation: “To simply ignore and run from what has been presented by multiple witnesses and sources…would mean I am either intentionally blind, or overly worried,” said Rawlings.
John Swallow and John Shurtleff were arrested last year after rumors that the two men were engaged in a pay-to-play scheme in which they traded favors with businessmen in danger with regulators. Both men pleaded “not guilty.” Their trials are scheduled for 2016.
Reid’s name appeared when Rawlings looked into the case. And while the investigation was closed in 2013 with no charges filed, Rawlings complains, “It is not up to the DOJ to tell me who can and who cannot be investigated and what evidence is relevant and material to a state case.”