July 21, 2014      5:12 PM
HK: Ethics Commission ruling may create possible criminal liabilities for MQ Sullivan
TEC alleges losing or destroying evidence plus lobbyist Sullivan refused to answer questions under a lawful subpoena.
We
and others will be exploring these issues in more depth in the coming days, but
the shocker in the today’s Texas Ethics Commission Ruling was
the quite explicit declaration that Michael
Quinn Sullivan and his associates either lost or destroyed substantial
amounts of evidence sought for the investigation. The exact quote referenced in our earlier
story by Scott Braddock was that
Commissioners were “left with the
inescapable conclusion that Mr. Sullivan and Empower Texans have
destroyed or lost thousands of emails sent to members of the Legislature during
2010 and 2011.”
In
addition, Sullivan refused to answer questions under a lawful subpoena. That would be his right if he invoked his Fifth
Amendment protections. He did
not. Instead, he refused to answer
citing First Amendment which is a questionable legal theory at best.
Sullivan
has multiple legal channels available to appeal and his attorneys of course
said they will do so. Nevertheless,
along the way, Sullivan may have exposed himself to possible criminal liability.
By Harvey Kronberg
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