‘Mishandled.’ Top Missouri Republican attempts to discredit ethics investigation

Attorneys for Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher on Tuesday sent a letter to the chair of the House Ethics Committee attempting to discredit the committee’s investigation into the top Republican.

The letter raises objections about the Ethics Committee’s investigation as well as Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Hannah Kelly’s decision for the committee to vote on a blistering report on Plocher on April 15.

The committee rejected the report, which alleged that Plocher’s office repeatedly obstructed a months-long investigation into a complaint of ethical misconduct. But its findings became public because the vote happened in open session.

“This investigation was mishandled from the start,” Plocher’s attorneys David Steelman and Lowell Pearson wrote in the letter to Kelly, a Republican from Mountain Grove. “To take seven months to get to the unlawful and circus-like events of April 15, is quite unbelievable.”

The letter alleges that the committee erred in several ways including an allegation that the committee “unlawfully” hired outside counsel to assist the investigation. It also takes issue with Kelly’s motion for a vote on the report in public, accusing Kelly of “giving the press a one-sided, incomplete report.”

Tuesday’s letter was the first formal condemnation from Plocher’s camp after the committee rejected the investigative report last week. It comes as the top Republican’s supporters have spent weeks attacking Kelly on social media and elsewhere, urging the committee to complete its investigation.

The repudiation of the ethics investigation also comes as Plocher will likely seek to recast his public image as he mounts a campaign for secretary of state. The top Republican has not commented publicly on the report and stormed out of a news conference when asked about its findings last week.

Kelly declined comment on the letter when approached by The Star at the Missouri Capitol.

Plocher’s attorneys in the letter allege without evidence that staff members or Ethics Committee members critical of Plocher leaked information to the media about the behind-closed-doors investigation. Kelly and Ethics Committee Vice Chair Rep. Robert Sauls, an Independence Democrat, have raised the same accusation about information being leaked by individuals supportive of Plocher.

The rejected ethics report did not find direct evidence that Plocher committed ethical violations related to a slew of scandals, including receiving nearly $4,000 in government reimbursements for travel expenses already paid by his campaign. The only punishment it recommended was a letter of disapproval against Plocher.

But the report also detailed the lengths that Plocher’s office and his supporters allegedly went to hamper the investigation, including letters showing how Plocher, through his office, fought against subpoenas issued by the committee to compel witnesses to testify.

Kelly in a statement last week accused Plocher of taking steps to “threaten witnesses, block our investigation, and prevent this process from reaching its natural conclusion.”

Kelly went on to describe a “culture of fear and retaliation,” saying that she has “grave concerns about the environment that is developing in the House.”

The letter from Plocher’s attorneys issued line-by-line objections to these allegations. In one point, the attorneys state that Plocher recused himself from his power of issuing subpoenas for the investigation.

Steelman, a former Republican state lawmaker and a former member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, told reporters on Tuesday that the subpoenas that Plocher refused to sign were to compel Plocher and his chief of staff, Rod Jetton, to testify. Steelman said he did not sign them because he and Jetton agreed to testify without the subpoenas.

Plocher “eventually” recused himself from the power to approve the subpoenas after the committee issued a “second batch” of subpoenas, Steelman said. He said he did not know when that occurred.

“He did — eventually,” Steelman said when asked by The Star why Plocher did not immediately recuse himself from signing off on subpoenas for an investigation into himself. “When it mattered, he did.”

Steelman went on to attack the Ethics Committee itself.

“When the House Ethics Committee becomes lawless, it doesn’t exactly bode well for either the institution or its members,” he said.

Plocher’s attorneys in the letter allege that the Ethics Committee violated House rules during its investigation. The letter alleges that the initial complaint against Plocher contained allegations that were not within the committee’s purview and takes issue with the wording of the rejected report.

“The report makes gratuitous and unfounded commentary that the ‘environment’ was ‘toxic’ or ‘negative,’” the letter said. “The Committee has a narrow jurisdiction which does not include being the House’s Human Resources. It was irresponsible to include such commentary, even assuming it was actually said.”

The 52-page document sent to Kelly also includes new details about the behind-closed-doors investigation, including affidavits from people connected to the controversies surrounding Plocher. In one affidavit, Rep. Dale Wright, a Farmington Republican who oversees internal House spending, pushes back on an allegation that Plocher threatened a top House staffer.

The letter also calls on the Ethics Committee to complete its investigation as the complaint of ethical misconduct remains active.

Steelman, during a news conference on Tuesday, specifically took aim at Kelly, saying he’s heard “three or four rumors on why Hannah Kelly’s doing this. I’m not gonna repeat it.”

He then went a step further.

“I will tell you one thing I think about her motives,” he said. “I believe Hannah Kelly is trying to bait Dean Plocher into removing her so she can play the victim card. I think that’s exactly what’s going on.”