Gov. Jim Justice pushed back on a national report of a federal investigation involving the “Do It For Babydog” vaccine sweepstakes.
In a briefing Tuesday, the governor and his chief of staff acknowledged a subpoena by federal investigators and confirmed that the administration had cooperated with the probe.
But the West Virginia officials emphasized that the investigation was not about state actions. Instead, they said, it was focused on prices set by car dealers and indicated that it has concluded without a finding of wrongdoing.
“We’ve been told that the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office has been closed. No charges were levied against any of the car dealers, and this had nothing to do with this office,” Justice said.
“This was really directed at car dealers, and I am definitely sending a letter to the editor at CBS and demanding a clarification, that there has never been an investigation in regard to my office.”
West Virginia MetroNews submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for subpoenas to the Governor’s Office from Jan. 1 to the present. It was not immediately clear what specific information was sought from the Governor’s Office or what federal agency was leading the investigation.
The existence of a federal probe broke this week through a national CBS News report: “West Virginia’s COVID vaccine lottery under scrutiny over cost of prizes, tax issues.”
The bottom line, according to the television report: “CBS News has learned federal investigators subpoenaed Gov. Jim Justice’s office about the sweepstakes. The focus, according to the governor’s staff, is car dealers that supplied trucks that were given to lottery winners and questions about how much they cost taxpayers.”
Although CBS specified that the query’s focus was on car dealers, the administration remarks at Tuesday’s briefings took umbrage. Justice complained that the report made it look like the administration itself was in the hot seat.
“What’s being reported here is nothing other than 18-karat garbage,” Justice said. “It’s been reported that we were under investigation; that’s completely wrong.”
CBS did not report that the administration was under investigation.
Justice’s chief of staff, Brian Abraham, acknowledged conversations with CBS.
“You could see where he’s tried to thread the needle to where he’s tried to make it that it’s being accurately reported but at the same time give the inference to there being something untoward here in the Governor’s Office.”
Abraham said, “It was just a hit job.”
The CBS reporter, Scott MacFarlane, briefly entered the Zoom teleconference for the governor’s live-streamed press briefing but blipped off before getting to ask a follow-up question.
Justice, a Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, contended the situation is politically motivated.
“I don’t welcome people that are reporting things that are driven by one thing and one thing alone — and that is, ‘Justice is running for the Senate and it is probable that he’s going to win, and if he wins we’re going to flip control and we’re going to lose our grip as Democrats that control the Senate.’”
