Last year, the U.S. attorney for the state’s southern district ruined West Virginia’s birthday party.
Why he chose June 20 to charge a state Supreme Court justice in a 22-count federal indictment we probably will never know.
But we do know he did what was right, not to mention he upheld the law of the land.
There’s no need to recap what happened next, except to say only two of the five justices on that bench are still there.
And the one who was indicted June 20, 2018? He’s serving a two-year term in a federal prison in South Carolina.
At press time Wednesday no indictments had been served on any state officials, though we kept wondering if it might happen again.
Last year, that U.S. attorney said something while announcing those federal indictments that was telling then and now.
He said then in response to other public officials, including Gov. Jim Justice, who were so quick to condemn then-Justice Allen Loughry, they did so, “perhaps with the hope that the crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court could be expediently resolved by lodging all culpability on just one person … .”
But, he added, “That may or may not, however, be the case. Our work continues on many fronts, including additional areas of corruption.”
Judging by the swirl of legal, financial and political woes that continually dog our governor we won’t be surprised if his worse days are ahead of him.
Of course, it certainly would surprise us if one of those worse days was today.
Especially since, on a day that most consider a nonpolitical one, much like the Fourth of July, the governor is hosting a top-dollar political fundraiser for his re-election campaign.
No, it’s not as if he’s smearing birthday cake all over our state’s independence day, however, he’s using this holiday to promote himself rather than the state.
Our state has a long history of political stunts and far worse, corruption. But to say this fundraiser or public officials being indicted amount to just another day on the calendar would appear to say we accept such things.
We don’t. True, we are at constant loggerheads with public officials, including legislators, and their policies and agendas. However, that sustained outrage never rises to the level of suspicions any and all public officials are working to undermine the rule of law.
If we go down that rabbit hole we might as well concede our faith in our form of representative government altogether.
Still, no public official is above the law and any who would violate the law and our trust should be held accountable.
Although everyone prefers cake and ice cream on birthdays, justice can and should be served, too.
