Rob Sanders abused office by lying to help McDaniel and Comer deceive reporters and voters.
Rob Sanders abused office by lying to help McDaniel and Comer deceive reporters and voters.
Amanda Van Benschoten, Were Sen. Chris McDaniel’s children threatened?, The Enquirer (May 5, 2015), available at http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/northern-ky/2015/05/05/sen-chris-mcdaniels-children-threatened/26926033/
However, the Kenton County Circuit Clerk’s Office confirmed in an email to me that the regular grand jury serving in December 2014 ended its service on schedule and was replaced by a new regular grand jury in January 2015:
Sanders’ assertion also conflicts with the stated term of the regular Grand Jury listed in ULCr Rule 1 of the Uniform Local Criminal Rules for Kenton County Circuit Court which provides for the summoning and impaneling of Kenton County's regular Grand Juries. The rules indicate that Kenton County's standing Grand Jury in December 2014 was in the last month of its 3-month term and was scheduled to be replaced by a new regular Grand Jury in January 2015. http://goo.gl/YwDlrg.
It is certain that Sanders lied and that the purpose of Sanders’ lie was to give McDaniel’s bogus claim the false appearance of having merit. McDaniel and Comer refused to produce any evidence of their alleged threat for the media and relied on Sanders’ lie to give their bogus claim the false appearance of having merit. The only thing that is uncertain is whether Sanders even presented the matter to the Grand Jury in December 2014 at all. There are two possibilities:
Sanders did present it to the December 2014 Grand Jury and then he lied by claiming the Grand Jury was still investigating the matter in May 2015. (If Sanders admitted that a previous Grand Jury refused to indict it would undermine the purpose of his lie, which was to give credibility to McDaniel’s bogus claim. If he told the press he presented the matter to two or three Grand Juries that refused to indict, it would also draw attention to Sanders’ conflict of interest since he is a friend, political ally, and a contributor to the Comer-McDaniel Campaign.) or
Sanders did not present it to the December 2014 Grand Jury but lied and claimed that he did and also lied by claiming the Grand Jury was still investigating the matter in May 2015. (I.e., Sanders told two lies, in order to give credibility to McDaniel’s bogus claim.)
More information has come to light since the Enquirer published that article.
In May 2015, a few days after the Enquirer’s article, the Courier-Journal’s Joe Gerth exposed the deceptive way the Comer-McDaniel Campaign was using the alleged grand jury investigation to evade questions and to discredit Comer’s accuser by making comments that falsely indicated the grand jury investigation was looking into her as well. See Joseph Gerth, Grand jury not focused on abuse issue, The Courier-Journal (May 9, 2015), available at http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/gerth/2015/05/09/grand-jury-little-abuse-issue/27045441/.
In August 2015 Joe Gerth followed up on the alleged grand jury investigation and found out there would be no indictment and that the matter had been dropped right after the election. See Joseph Gerth, Grand jury won’t charge blogger in Comer case, The Courier-Journal (August 4, 2015) available at http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/04/grand-jury-charge-blogger-comer-case/31131001/.
In late September 2015 Kentucky Roll Call’s Lowell Reese exposed that it was the Comer-McDaniel Campaign that leaked the illegally obtained emails to the Herald-Leader. See Lowell Reese, Jamie Comer’s decision to leak e-mails to newspaper went wrong, Kentucky Roll Call (September 25, 2015), available at Link.