This just popped up – The Argus is reporting that South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is unhappy with the US Department of Justice lingering on their investigation of the EB-5 matter, which remains open with no apparent activity, and possibly may be open simply for political reasons:
Jackley’s investigation was completed in about six months. The federal probe, however, is now at least two years old.
“That was a long time ago,” Jackley said. “So I guess it begs the question of what are they looking at.”
Although the department indicated that it remains open, there doesn’t appear to be activity.
and…
“I’ll tell you, I’m less than happy with them,” Jackley said.
Jackley says he hopes to talk more about the Department of Justice’s role in the investigation, but he’s waiting first on a ruling from the state Supreme Court. The attorney general’s office is defending itself from a lawsuit brought by journalist Bob Mercer, who is trying to force the office to release more information about the Benda investigation. The hearing is later this month.
Jackley said that local federal officials did a good job, but he has different feelings for federal officials in Washington.
“I had expressed during the process concerns of how the Department of Justice was handling matters,” he said.
I doubt this was about “political reasons.” There are so many layers and regarding the mishandling of this fiasco I’m sure it’s taken longer than everyone expected. Then you add offshore shady backers it just adds to the mess and mystery. We would sure like to find out what really happened so all of us can move on. GOAC was a joke!
jackley’s work on this case is directly called into question by the lingering unwillingness to close the case or bring it to a conclusion. he has every right to speak out about this. a just society concludes its court business appropriately as part of due-process; incarceration/punishment terms are imposed and fulfilled, and commutations, expungings and pardons are handed out where appropriate.
the whole mechanism of alinsky-style disruption of process always involves freezing something, holding it in place while the most political damage can be done to an opponent, for however long it needs to take.
why shouldn’t some think that such a goal is at work here?
I agree. I’m still waiting for an open and honest investigation into the Mette-Dorsett-Jackley-DSS scandal and cover-up in Aberdeen.
GOAC was a joke. However, it was a joke because the Dem’s wanted to politicize it and use it to cast aspersions on a GOP Senate candidate.
At the end of the day, if there had been even a shred of evidence that even implicated Rounds tangentially, charges would have been brought or rumors of potential charges leaked. There was none because there is “no there there.” Jackley knows this and is just calling the feds out to finally confirm it.
The other reason GOAC didn’t “accomplish” much is because of the Governor’s swift independent forensic audit from Eide Bailly and the audit by Legislative Audit which discovered some control issues for which recommendations were made and adopted quickly by the Governor.
That said, it was good that GOAC did its work and confirmed whatever should have been prevented by control issues were addressed and there is less likely odds of a repeat.
well said.
P.S. The reason the Dems will never let the issue go regardless of the facts: They made it THE CENTRAL ISSUE in both the Governor’s race and Senate race. It is hard to admit one put all their hopes and dreams into a mirage.
I remember when the GOP called Watergate a “…third rate burglary.” I also remember when Nixon’s White House transcripts were given in place of the actual oval office tapes as a hopeful smokescreen.
I don’t believe the final chapter has been written on this matter and hopefully the Feds are barking up the right tree unlike the GOAC or even the Dems did for that matter.
This scandal is about more than a death, misappropriated fees, and $ 500,000 investments.
If a legislator of either party, state or national, was to successfully author and have enacted into law a bill which benefited a particular industry or company and then that legislator was to abruptly leave public office and soon work for that industry or company would we not all be suspicious?
Well, within this EB5 there is someone who matches this description but no one is talking about him. No, I am not talking about Rounds, but do look again; and this person is not a legislator nor has he been, but his prior acts as a bureaucrat are analogous to my aforementioned rhetorical scenario/question.
Hopefully, the Feds are looking into this, because I know the GOAC didn’t, apparently the SDAG did not nor did he have the jurisdiction to do so, and such an angle on this story never fit into the Democratic agenda last fall. The people deserve to know the truth about this scandal, but partisan politics does not have the answer nor the interest to pursue it and the obvious truth.
Many years ago, “Deep Throat” told Woodward to “follow the money,” but in this scandal we really have not done this. We have recognized the money, but we have not really “followed it” nor grasped how and who coordinate the EB5 program which allow this scandal to happen. When you grasp its formation and who formed it, then what is happening here becomes quite apparent.
Hopefully, the Feds understand this.
is the person you’re implicating an alive person, or a not-alive person? you write a long essay but left out that detail.
I wonder how Joop is doing these days.
He’s alive.
Watergate was indeed a third rate burglary. Absolutely nothing to talk about. It was the coverup that was scandalous. It’s always the cover up.
Why would a White House involve itself in a “third rate burglary” if it did not have something to gain or hide from it….. let us not forget the 18 minute gap too… Oh that’s right, Rose Mary Woods accidentally erased that portion of the tapes, silly me…. 😉
But, I would agree you are on to something, though. It is always the cover-up isn’t it? It has a life of its own which tends to take an investigation tangent to its original intent with indictments that often help the prosecutors and or investigators to save face when the real scandal is left on touched or impregnable from an investigation stand point.
And this is my greatest fear about this story, scandal, investigation or whatever you want to call it, that the real story will never be known and the federal indictments, if any, will only deal with how those involved answered investigative questions.
Just ask Martha Steward about this. Many think she went to prison for insider trading, which she did not. She went to prison because she was found guilty of lying to investigators during the investigation.
There is so much more to this EB5 story I allege, but to para phrase Joe Biden for a moment, for most, especially in the state media, this story has become nothing but “a noun, a verb, and either a murder/suicide story or about $ 500,000 for a green card.”
you don’t want this to be ended. you want it frozen right here so you can write a new version of this essay of yours any time you want to bring it all back again. the end of it all will put it right where jackley and GOAC left it and you won’t have anything to talk about.