In which great minds run in small circles, re: Utah AG Sean Reyes...
...Legislature launches the kind of probe Tribune editorial said it should
This won’t happen very often, so take note.
Last weekend’s Salt Lake Tribune editorial [which I wrote on behalf of the Editorial Board] called for, among other things, a legislative oversight investigation of the way Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is, or isn’t, running his office.
Utah A.G. Sean Reyes has become an embarrassment, the editorial board writes, and should find something else to do — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board, November 12
Every few days seems to bring a new report of how Reyes takes time and energy — and honor — away from his duties as the state’s chief law enforcement officer to play slavish lapdog — and guard dog — to a self-appointed, freelance anti-child trafficking cop who increasingly looks like a phony, if not a sex criminal….
…It would be so much easier for everyone if Reyes would give up the job that apparently doesn’t interest him that much, resigning now or announcing that he won’t run again in 2024.
If he doesn’t do either — maybe even if he does — it would be time for the Legislature to exercise some of its constitutional oversight duties, connect the dots and, if there are grounds, launch impeachment proceedings….
Monday, that’s exactly what happened. [Well, nobody is talking impeachment. Yet.]
Utah A.G. Sean Reyes’ office to be investigated over concerns of relationship with Tim Ballard, oversight - Robert Gehrke and Paighten Harkins, The Salt Lake Tribune, November 14
Utah’s legislative auditor will investigate the attorney general’s office amid lingering questions about its leadership and new issues relating to Attorney General Sean Reyes’ long-standing friendship with Tim Ballard, the now-ousted founder of the anti-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad.
The move comes after more than two dozen bipartisan state lawmakers requested the sweeping audit in a letter dated Monday, and two days after The Tribune detailed 30-some luxury trips by Reyes over a 3-year period….
It would not be fair or proper for The Tribune Editorial Board to claim credit for this legislative action. Though, clearly, The Tribune’s reporting about Reyes, Ballard, Reyes’s donor-paid junkets, etc., is the nexus of it all.
For one thing, the editorial appeared over the weekend — in print editions delivered Saturday and online Sunday. The letter written by legislative leadership and others to the Legislative Audit Committee had to have been in the works well before that to have been drafted, signed and sent Monday.
For another, most members of the Republican-led Utah Legislature would rather get a poke in the eye with a sharp stick than be seen doing anything The Tribune Editorial Board told it to. Which is fine. We hope lawmakers and other public officials consider what we say, but neither they nor anyone else are obligated to follow our advice.
In the meantime, credit should go to one of the lawmakers calling for the probe — Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork — who was quoted in The Tribune back on Oct. 12 saying, “I think there’s huge frustration with Sean Reyes on Capitol Hill right now. Being the attorney general is not a high priority for him and people are frustrated.”
The subsequent Tribune editorial picked up a similar theme without giving McKell credit.
Just who does Sean Reyes think he is?
It’s not altogether clear. Though serving the people of Utah as the state’s attorney general doesn’t seem to be high on his list. …
I thought I came up with that idea myself, but McKell was first.
Well, as I say, great minds sometimes run in small circles.