SALT LAKE CITY — A longtime friend and employee of Marc Sessions Jenson says former Utah Attorney General John Swallow wasn’t involved in the efforts to get the criminal charges against his boss dropped.
"As far as Swallow goes, I don't remember (Jenson) having any issues with him,” Paul Nelson testified Monday in 3rd District Court.
Nelson's testimony over two days centered mostly on the relationship between Jenson, former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Shurtleff’s self-described fixer, Tim Lawson. He expressed his frustration about his failed efforts in 2007 to get Shurtleff to drop criminal charges against Jenson.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Scott Williams, Nelson said he didn’t see Swallow as part of the “Shurtleff-Lawson scam.”
Nelson's testimony could be a blow to the prosecution’s assertion that Shurtleff, Swallow and Lawson conspired to extort Jenson. Williams is trying to distance Swallow from that association.
Swallow, acting alone and sometimes with the other two, solicited campaign contributions from the telemarketing, negative option marketing and payday loan industries in exchange for help on specific issues and favorable treatment by the attorney general's office, according to prosecutors.
Swallow is charged with a dozen felonies, including racketeering, bribery, accepting gifts and money laundering. Criminal charges against Shurtleff were dropped last year. Lawson died last year.
Salt Lake County prosecutors have spent the first week of the trial establishing the relationship between the three men, though little of the testimony has focused on Swallow.
Testimony from Jenson's personal assistant, Peter Torres, could also dent the prosecution's case.
He said he wrote numerous checks and money transfers to Lawson for access to Shurtleff. But he said Lawson "was not a conduit to John Swallow for us."
Torres agreed with Williams' characterization of Lawson as a "paid consultant" and "facilitator."
Asked by Williams if Swallow was ever heavy-handed or shook down Jenson, Torres said no.
Jenson never paid Swallow for legal work nor did Swallow submit an invoice for work, said Torres, who worked for Jenson from 2000 to 2010. But under cross-examination, he said he was aware Swallow was involved in the failed $3.5 billion Mount Holly resort project in Beaver and in a document to help Jenson lease an office in Corona Del Mar.
Torres testified that Jenson paid for Shurtleff, Swallow and Lawson to visit the exclusive Pelican Hill resort near Newport Beach, California. Swallow was a private attorney and working as Shurtleff's chief fundraiser at the time.
On one trip, though, he wired money for the airfare to Lawson. He conceded it's possible that Lawson didn't tell Shurtleff or Swallow the money came from Jenson.
Although Jenson complained about paying for Lawson's trips, Torres said he didn't complain about paying for Swallow and his wife to visit on their anniversary in July 2009.
Nelson earlier testified that he thought it was “ridiculous” to pay Lawson for access to Shurtleff. He said he preferred to deal with Shurtleff face to face.
Nelson said he had "negative feelings" against Swallow when he didn't drop a second criminal case against Jenson involving the failed Mount Holly resort project after he became attorney general in 2013.
"I started to think to myself, 'John Swallow wasn’t the nice guy I thought he was,'" Nelson said.
Williams pointed out that Swallow was "walled" off from that case because of the work he had done on Mount Holly as a private attorney. Nelson said he didn't realize that.
A jury acquitted Jenson of fraud charges in the Mount Holly case in 2015.
Nelson said he believes Shurtleff went after Jenson in 2005 as a favor to another businessman who had donated to the attorney general’s political campaign. Nelson was once under investigation for allegedly trying to bribe Shurtleff.
Nelson questioned paying the “maniac” Lawson to be Jenson’s conduit to Shurtleff. Lawson "handled" things for Shurtleff outside the office, prosecutors say.
“Timothy Lawson was not a consultant. He was a scam artist,” Nelson said.
FBI forensic accountant Heidi Ransdell testified that Jenson wired Lawson $134,620 from July 2008 to November 2009. Jenson also paid Lawson by check and testified he once gave him $10,000 in cash.
Prosecutors further tried to establish the racketeering charge through businessman Darl McBride's dealing with Shurtleff and Lawson. He testified that his business was struggling and that businessman Mark Robbins owed him money. Robbins had fled the state and McBride created a website he called a "digital bounty" trying to track down Robbins.
Shurtleff intervened, and in a May 2009 meeting with McBride at Mimi's Cafe, the attorney general asked him to back off Robbins because it hurt his ability to do business deals. Robbins was involved in developing a transit stop in Draper.
In the meeting that McBride secretly recorded and turned over to criminal investigators, Shurtleff asked what he could do. McBride told him he needed $2 million to get his business going. McBride said Shurtleff told him he could get the money from Jenson, whose probation was under the attorney general's supervision at the time.
Under cross-examination, McBride said Swallow never came up in his conversations with Lawson or Shurtleff, and that he didn't know Swallow.
Nelson testified that he told his first cousin, then-U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, that he believed Shurtleff was operating "outside the law" in his pursuit of Jenson. He said Tolman told him to talk directly to Shurtleff.
Nelson said he went to Shurtleff to ask him to drop the criminal case against Jenson in 2007. He said Shurtleff asked what would be in it for him. Nelson said he told Shurtleff nothing, but that maybe he could help raise campaign funds for him. He said he made it clear he wouldn’t do anything illegal.
Nelson became the subject of an FBI sting operation in October 2007 with Shurtleff acting as an undercover informant. Shurtleff was recovering from surgery to his leg after a motorcycle accident at the time. The sting operations were carried out at Shurtleff's parents' house and in his hospital room.
Nelson called the bribery accusation “untrue, unfounded and not the case.” He was never charged with a crime in connection with the investigation.
Reading from transcripts of Nelson's meeting with Shurtleff, Williams reminded him that he told the then-attorney general that Jenson could call his rich friends to donate $50,000 each to his political campaign. Nelson also said Jenson would get them to contribute to an opponent if Shurtleff didn't help Jenson.
"I know all of this sounds very shoddy," Nelson said, adding that Shurtleff "baited" him to say "stupid" things.
Nelson also testified that Jenson asked him to set up a meeting for Shurtleff with Tolman. Jenson earlier testified that Shurtleff told him that Tolman intended to pursue criminal charges against the then-attorney general.
Nelson said there was no way he was going to his cousin on Shurtleff’s behalf but gave Jenson the impression that he had. He said he never talked to Tolman but told Jenson that Shurtleff should contact Tolman to set up a meeting.
On cross-examination, Williams asked Nelson if he tells the truth. Nelson replied that he always tells the truth, "except that one time to Marc Jenson."
Nelson testified that he became familiar with Swallow through Republican politics when Swallow ran for Congress in 2000 and 2002. He said he put a Swallow campaign sign in his yard. He said he talked to Swallow at Jenson’s office in 2006 or 2007. He said Swallow was there to talk about Jenson’s legal problems and the Mount Holly project.
Nelson also said he saw Shurtleff and Swallow at the Pelican Hill resort in Southern California in 2009, but never stayed there himself because it was too expensive. He said he assumed Swallow was there to talk to Jenson about political fundraising.