DAYS AFTER CREW COMPLAINT, S.C. ATTORNEY GENERAL TO INVESTIGATE GOV. SANFORD

1 Jul 2009 // Washington, D.C. - CREW is gratified to see that South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster has initiated an investigation into whether Gov. Mark Sanford broke any laws in conducting his affair with a woman in Argentina. Last Friday, CREW asked the attorney general to investigate whether Sanford violated the state constitution by leaving the state without a governor in his absence, whether he illegally used state funds to conduct the affair, and whether he committed the crime of misconduct in office, which includes any willful and dishonest breach of duty by a public official.

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said today, “CREW is pleased the attorney general has ordered an inquiry into Gov. Sanford’s conduct. It is one thing for the governor to have an affair, it is quite another for him to abuse his position of public trust to pursue an illicit relationship. The people of South Carolina deserve to know whether Governor Sanford – charged with upholding the law – was himself violating the law.”