Embattled Utah Attorney General John Swallow is denying that he ever intentionally deleted emails from his computers. He’s also accusing the special counsel for the House committee investigating him of being inflammatory and unprofessional.
The accusation came during an appearance Wednesday on KSL Newsradio’s The Doug Wright Show. Swallow made the statement in reference to this week’s investigative committee meeting, during which special counsel Steve Reich said the amount of data missing from Swallow’s computers should be deeply worrisome to members of the committee. Swallow said that kind of statement is premature.
“Before we can get the answers, before anybody really knows what’s happening, before anybody’s really reviewed anything, these statements are made, which I think are calculated to enflame and enrage people,” he said.
Swallow also said in the interview that he is worried the committee will find him guilty of some wrongdoing simply to justify the cost to taxpayers. He says they could have avoided those costs if they had just stopped their investigation after the U.S. Department of Justice chose not to prosecute.
“And for some reason they made the decision that we’ve got to continue forward, and the more they get into this, the more they’re going to have to dig, the more they’re going to have to spend, in order to justify the very reason they got into this,” he said.
The committee has spent more than $600 thousand dollars so far, and could potentially spend as much as $3 million.
