CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice says he trusts Bray Cary.
The former media executive was one of Justice’s biggest critics during the 2016 election. He’s also a board member for the natural gas company EQT, with millions of dollars in stock holdings.
And now, Cary is Justice’s senior adviser, earning $8.75 an hour.
“Bray Cary is the most unlikely person in the world to have a bond with Jim Justice,” the governor said. “Nobody on the planet beat on me worse than Bray Cary beat on me through the election process and everything. Bray called me about everything you could possibly call somebody.”
“So how? How is that? Well, you see, I don’t carry bad thoughts with me. I don’t. And really, truly, Bray Cary is an extremely talented man that genuinely loves our state. Bray Cary truly makes not one single dime being here but he works his tail off. He’s a worker, and he’s got knowledge.”
Cary has been on EQT’s board of directors since 2008, which means he would have a fiduciary responsibility to the company. Cary also leads EQT’s corporate governance committee. Last year, he made $367,860 in cash, stock awards and other compensation, according to EQT’s report to shareholders.
Cary bought several rounds of EQT stock in June 2017, including one purchase of 22,627 shares valued at more than $1.2 million.
“Never one time, never one time do I feel like there is any type of conflict with EQT. Nothing,” Justice said. “If we get into a natural gas discussion, many times he has excused himself. Many times I’ve said ‘Bray you shouldn’t be in this and everything.’”
“But really and truly, never once, never one time has he asked me even remotely think (sic) that could be tied or a favor for anything for EQT. Never one time.”
Amid ethical questions, Justice feels a kinship with Cary: Both are businessmen facing conflicts of interest as they enter public office.
“You’ve never had a governor that has this many tentacles all through everything that I have,” Justice said. “I’ll never possibly be able to please you on every single thing all the time.
“Bray Cary is a successful guy. He’s done a lot of work,” Justice said. “You’ll be able to find something about him that you could report or say something bad about.”
Cary’s business ties warrant scrutiny after Justice and his chief counsel revealed Friday the investigation of a private businessman — believed to be Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center CEO Steve Hedrick — possibly leveraging his own company’s interests during the Department of Commerce’s negations with China.
“The individual associated with that is an outside party that had also been working with Commerce,” said Brian Abraham, senior counsel in the Governor’s Office. “We heard some information within that that didn’t make sense.”
“Then that caused us to go, ‘Why is this person behind the curtain at Commerce if they’re an individual on the outside?’ That created an ethical dilemma.”
Cary began with the Governor’s Office as a citizen volunteer and worked that way for months, with an office, a parking spot, a Capitol entry card and the ear of the governor.
In early May, the Governor’s Office put Cary on the official payroll at $8.75 an hour, a move Abraham said was meant to reduce confusion as he began “to interact with agencies or outside the office.”
Since that change, Cary’s time sheets have reflected him working 9 a.m. to noon.
“I tell you, he could probably file a claim against us because he works, realistically works 80 hours a week,” Justice said. “He’s working all the time.”
Cary has been receiving checks for $26.25.
“I am just saying to you no way, no way in the world should we do anything but applaud Bray Cary for coming in here and doing all the good work he’s doing because he believes in the goodness of West Virginia,” Justice said.
“What is he getting out of this? What is he getting out of it? I mean, $8.75 an hour for 15 hours? What is Bray Cary getting out of this? Do you really think he’s after power or influence or whatever it may be? Or maybe he’s trying to sneak something by me as far as EQT?”
Justice said that will never happen.
“I’m working all the time. They know it. There’s no way in the world Bray Cary is going to sneak something by me. There’s no way in the world people are going to sneak stuff by me, they’re just not going to do it.”
