COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The Latest on the call for South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson to resign from a Republican opponent (all times local):
2 p.m.
A spokesman for Attorney General Alan Wilson says a call for him to resign by a fellow Republican planning to run against him is absurd.
William Herlong said Thursday that Wilson needs to step down because his link to a political consultant tied up in a Statehouse corruption probe “has created a culture of corruption.”
Wilson’s campaign spokesman Mark Knoop called Herlong’s demand “absurd political theatrics in its worst form” in an email.
Knoop says the entanglements that Herlong cites happened eight months before Wilson turned the corruption case over to Solicitor David Pascoe because of a conflict of interest.
Wilson is a client of Richard Quinn Sr. a consultant indicted in the probe, but who accepted a plea deal to cooperate if all charges are dropped.
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11:10 a.m.
A Republican mounting a primary challenge to South Carolina’s attorney general says Alan Wilson should resign because of ties to targets of a corruption probe.
William Herlong told The Associated Press on Thursday Wilson’s office “has created a culture of corruption” amid the years long investigation.
Wilson isn’t implicated in the probe, which his office began in 2014 with the indictment of then-House Speaker Bobby Harrell. Wilson recused himself, citing a conflict of interest, and a special prosecutor took over. Other current and former lawmakers have been charged.
Wilson is a client of Richard Quinn, a consultant also indicted. Herlong says Wilson sought advice from Quinn on how to address the case publicly, knowing a state police report tied Quinn to the overall investigation.
Wilson’s office didn’t immediately return a message.
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