A federal investigation into Governor Jim Justice and several of his businesses is over, explained George J. Terwilliger III, personal attorney for Justice and the former acting Attorney General of the United States, in a press conference on Tuesday, January 7.
Terwilliger opened the press conference by giving a statement announcing the end of the investigation:
“I’m pleased to announce that we were informed by career justice department prosecutors that the U.S. Department of Justice investigation has concluded with no allegation of any wrongdoing whatsoever. They found no wrongdoing. We’re grateful to the prosecutors for taking an even-handed analysis to understand the facts and subsequently close this matter.
“We also have to note the terrible toll the investigation has taken on many innocent people and innocent interests. News of the investigation, even though no allegations of wrongdoing were ever made, was enough to cause sponsorship money for the golf tournament to dry up, which hurt the charitable goals of that considerable effort. It also costs some people in private businesses their jobs when business partners pull back upon hearing the news of the investigation.
“This never should have happened. All that we have seen shows a hard-working family and a governor who cares deeply about the people of his state and tries to put their best efforts first.
“Now even if you haven’t done anything wrong, it’s still tough to be in a federal investigation. It’s stressful. It’s expensive. Just the existence of an investigation hurts your reputation. It makes people who have been your friends or your business partners look at you differently. It damages relationships. The Justice family has been through all of that and more since the investigations where reported last year.
“Today is an important day. For our system to work it is important that when someone is [cleared] of doing something wrong, that gets just as much press attention and coverage as the fact that they’re being investigated.
“The Justices are good people who strive to do the right things for the right reasons. They strive to be free now of the cloud that this investigation had put over them.
“So let me be clear – the Department of Justice investigation is over. Governor Justice, the Justice family, and the Justice companies have been cleared of any wrongdoing.”
Terwilliger took several questions after giving the statement, including what the investigation looked into.
“The investigation concerned matters concerning the state tax department and certain aspects of how the golf tournament was financed,” Terwilliger said. “It’s very natural for investigations of that sort to look at related things.”
Justice himself was not present for the conference – Terwilliger explained that Justice asked him to give the press conference in order to provide a “first-person” account of the closing of the investigation.
Another reporter asked if the Department of Justice provided a letter or documentation to the Justices explaining the decision, in particular a “letter of declination,” in which prosecutors formally decline to bring charges.
“Typically, investigations of this sort, particularly of public figures, don’t always come to some point of closure,” Terwilliger responded. “Sometimes you never find out what’s actually happened or what’s been decided, but instead the investigation just kind of peters out and the cloud is left hanging over somebody’s head for a long period of time. The prosecutors here, career people in the Justice Department saw fit to communicate to us, forthrightly and directly, that the investigation is over. We don’t need a letter, we know what we have now and we’re glad to have it.”
Shortly after becoming governor, Justice published a letter stating he did not plan to put his assets in a blind trust, the typical practice for many in high elected office to place a wall of separation between their assets and their policy decisions that could affect those assets. One question posed if the investigation could have been lessened or prevented by a blind trust.
“If this is an embarrassment, would it have been less of an embarrassment if the governor had put his interests in a blind trust?” asked a reporter during the press conference.
“That has nothing to do with that,” Terwilliger responded.
Terwilliger’s statement can be viewed on YouTube, by searching for “Governor Jim Justice” then finding the profile. The video is titled “Press Conference, January 7, 2020.”
Read more in the Wednesday, January 8, 2020, edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
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