This is the biggest corruption case in South Carolina history …
The Murdaugh family’s long-standing and quite-real influence over judges, juries, banks, politicians and law enforcement officers in this state make transparency absolutely critical as we navigate uncharted terrain in untangling this complex case.
We don’t know the full scope of alleged crimes.
We don’t know the full list of alleged co-conspirators.
From what FITSNews has repeatedly been told, a lot of people will likely go down with Murdaugh.
If something
can be released in accordance with FOIA in this case, then it
should be released.
Plain and simple.
We are not talking about a man who is in jail on a simple assault charge trying to talk to his mom.
We’re talking about
Richard Alexander Murdaugh, the load-bearing wall in what is shaping up to be the biggest crime and corruption case in the history of South Carolina.
Murdaugh … who has a reputation of being able to “get out of” anything he gets into.
Murdaugh … who is known for exploiting all systems in his and his family’s favor.
Murdaugh … the guy who was already under investigation for
obstruction of justice at the time of his wife’s and son’s murders.
Murdaugh … who remains the only publicly named person of interest in those murders, which have yet to produce an arrest.
FOIA exists to protect the public from secret government activity.
And this is why it is in the public’s
BEST INTEREST for sunlight to shine on this case from all available angles.
Because, guess what, the county’s sudden change of heart seems to be proof that games are being played. (More proof of games
here.)
Though the county has known about the lawsuit for more than a month, they cite the March 1 motion as a reason for their decision to withhold the recordings.
In its letter to FITSNews, the county claims that releasing the recordings would likely open them up to “numerous forms of liability.”
Bender disagrees.
“There’s no liability on the part of the government for releasing it,” he said Thursday night. “I think the federal lawsuit has accomplished what Murdaugh’s lawyers set out to accomplish and that is to intimidate the government to stop it from providing public access to public records.”
