The Utah Attorney General's office said Thursday that its investigators may look into any alleged criminal acts in a state House ethics complaint filed against Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper.
Meanwhile, regardless of any law enforcement probe, House Democrats want a "thorough" House ethics investigation of Hughes and want it even if Hughes decides not to fight the charges and resigns.
Hughes won't resign, he says, and demands a thorough investigation as well, believing he will be "completely exonerated."
"Nothing will stop me from getting before the ethics committee — I will expose this for what it is," Hughes said, calling it a cheap political attack aimed at derailing his re-election.
Chief deputy attorney general Kirk Torgensen told the newspaper that he offered one of the complainants 18 months ago that his office would look into any formal complaint she may want to file against Hughes. The complaint never came.
Torgensen said Thursday that that offer is still on the table, adding that his office could get involved in the investigation, whether the original complainant — former GOP Rep. Susan Lawrence — makes contact with them or not.
Meanwhile, Rep. Phil Riesen, D-Millcreek, says he did indeed leak an ethics complaint against Hughes to KSL-TV, and says he has nothing to apologize for and broke no House ethics rules in doing so. "I made the complaint public 18 hours or so before it was filed. It was important that the public know. And I didn't violate any confidentiality agreement" with Lawrence, who in a written letter that is part of the complaint says Hughes offered her a $50,000 campaign donation if she would switch and vote for private school vouchers. "Susan's letter is addressed 'to whom it may concern,"' said Riesen. "So it was perfectly right to share it with anyone."
After news broke that there likely would be an ethics investigation of Hughes, Hughes and two other Republicans, Reps. Brad Dee, R-Ogden, and Kevin Garn, R-Layton, filed an ethics complaint Wednesday morning against Riesen, claiming he broke ethics rules by releasing an unfiled ethics complaint against Hughes and asking for an investigation of Hughes in order to clear Hughes' name.
Later Wednesday, Riesen and two House Democrats, Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake, and Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, filed a lengthy ethics complaint against Hughes. It repeated the Lawrence charge and basically claimed that Hughes strong-armed lobbyists to make contributions to his pro-voucher political issues campaign, browbeat lobbyists not to support GOP candidates who were challenging him, Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, and Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, (Hughes won his GOP nomination, Donnelson and Tilton lost), and warning lobbyists who didn't play along that their bills could suffer in the House Rules Committee, where Hughes is the current vice chairman and could become chairman if he wins re-election this year.
Hughes denies all the charges and says he's hired an attorney to request a retraction from KSL-TV for using the word "bribe" in early news reports about the complaint.
Hughes' attorney, Thomas Karrenberg, said in a press release the House ethics committee will begin its review Oct. 9.
McGee told the Deseret News on Thursday that concerned legislators who back her formal complaint considered, at one time, including in the current complaint that the House Ethics Committee reopen the dismissed complaint against former Rep. Mark Walker, R-Sandy.
The ethics committee dismissed the Walker complaint, without actually investigating anything, after Walker resigned from the House in June. Walker was not seeking re-election. He instead ran as a Republican (with backing from many GOP legislators) for the open Utah State treasurer position. He was challenged by current chief deputy treasurer Richard Ellis. Ellis beat Walker in the June GOP primary, but only after Ellis charged that Walker tried to keep him out of the race by saying Ellis could keep his current job and get a large pay raise if Ellis let Walker get the GOP nomination.
In a previous complaint against Walker, a bipartisan group of House Democrats and Republicans charged that Walker had received assurances from someone in the House "who could make it happen" — could ensure an increased budget for the treasurer's office so Ellis could get a $50,000 a year raise if he didn't run against Walker.
McGee said she and a number of other House members "were very disappointed" that the ethics committee wouldn't look into who that other Republican House member could be (if, indeed, it actually happened) — as such an action would be a violation of House ethics, as well.
"But we decided not to include (the Walker-collusion charge) in this (Hughes) complaint," said McGee. "However, we do want the ethics committee to fully investigate (the Hughes complaint) no matter what happens" with Hughes' election Nov. 4 or his status as a sitting legislator, she said.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff decided not to investigate Walker himself (Shurtleff had endorsed Walker in the treasurer's race), and instead asked two county attorneys, one a Democrat, another a Republican, to look into any criminal violations in that case. That investigation has dragged on over the summer and no charges have been filed, or no statements about charges not being filed.
Torgensen is referenced in a letter from Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, that is attached to the complaint against Hughes filed Wednesday. Torgensen on Thursday clarified statements attributed to him in that letter.
"When she (Allen) called me and we talked about a potential investigation, I told her two things," Torgensen said. "I need a witness to come forward and make a statement and second ... that if this thing becomes a case it would be prosecuted by Salt Lake County."
Torgensen also spoke with Lawrence at that time and explained any investigation would require her statement, which she was not ready to give in 2007. Torgensen said the last communication he had with her, a year-and-a-half ago, was "if your views change, come back and talk to me about it."
Torgensen said he has not seen the Hughes ethics complaint, filed Wednesday with the Utah House. In that complaint is a letter signed by Lawrence in which she makes various charges against Hughes. In a cover letter signed by three House Democrats, they charge that some of the alleged actions by Hughes could be criminal in nature.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; araymond@desnews.com