Despite the desire for controversy peddled by our friends in the media and the Democratic Party (I apologize for the redundancy) over Star Scientific, the attorney general’s office effectively diffused any questions over the subject today.
The office announced that the firm Troutman Sanders – specifically former Attorney General of Virginia Stephen D. Rosenthal, a Democrat, and former Solicitor General of Virginia William H. Hurd, a Republican – will be handling the case: pro bono.
“We hold the Office of the Attorney General in high regard and we are pleased to assist the attorney general and the commonwealth by taking this case at no cost to Virginia taxpayers,” Rosenthal and Hurd said in a statment.
“To be clear, there was absolutely no conflict of interest with the attorney general’s office. But in an abundance of caution and to move past what has become an unnecessary distraction for the office and the attorney general, the case was given to outside counsel,” said Brian Gottstein, spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
If you recall, last week an AP article attempted to portray that there was a conflict of interest by citing a tax attorney who only donates to Democrats. Some additional info from the OAG:
* Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has not been personally involved in this case.
* As the Washington Post reported, “There is no evidence that Cuccinelli sought to intervene personally in Star Scientific’s suit, which the company filed in July 2011 to challenge a sales and use tax assessment.”
* The attorney general ‘s office has responded to the suit, defending the tax assessment. The commonwealth has filed all required pleadings with the court on time and according to all deadlines imposed.
* While this suit has been in the court since mid-2011, because the commonwealth is the defendant in the suit, the attorney general’s office is not the primary driver of the timetable of when the case is heard. The scheduling of civil cases for trial is generally initiated by the plaintiff. The OAG staff attorney talked at year-end 2012 and again in March 2013 to Star Scientific’s counsel about moving the case forward.
* Rosenthal and Hurd will be working with plaintiff’s counsel to continue moving the case forward.
* With respect to the reporting of his stock position in Star Scientific, the attorney general, upon becoming aware of the administrative reporting oversight that his combined holdings exceeded $10,000 (the threshold for disclosure), immediately filed a revised disclosure report in October 2012 — long before this media inquiry — to be fully compliant and transparent with the public about his holdings.
We now return you to your liberal bashing of the attorney general personally, and not of his office (because they can’t). I’m certain they will use terms and phrases from here…but it’s not like we have a problem with what’s said there.
