For Deal, ties to ethics commission problems run deep | www.myajc.com

The staff attorney is fired on suspicion that she was intoxicated on the job. The executive director is compelled to produce records by a federal grand jury. And it turns out the veteran lawyer brought in to right the ship was fired from his previous job for shoddy work and inappropriate behavior.

That’s been the order of business lately at Georgia’s ethics commission, the state agency charged with ensuring that politicians follow campaign finance laws.

And at every twist and turn – occasionally at center stage, more often just a shade too close to completely avoid notice – is the state’s top elected official, Gov. Nathan Deal. What might have been a simple, soon-forgotten reprimand for behavior during his days in Congress has – in part because of his staff’s subsequent actions — dogged Deal into his second run for governor.

More revelations could emerge this week, when proceedings may get underway in one of two lawsuits filed against the ethics commission by a pair of its former top leaders. They claim they were forced out because they looked too hard at alleged misdeeds by the governor.

Deal has denied that he or his aides engaged in wrongdoing. Although present and former commission staff members have been queried by the FBI and a federal grand jury, records don’t indicate that Deal or members of his team have been questioned in that probe. Last week, however, Deal and two key aides were subpoenaed in one of the whistleblower suits, which means the governor could have to testify under oath.

Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said, if called, the governor will testify but “he is not sure what pertinent information he would have in this civil case.”

Nearly five years after it began, the byzantine saga — with explosive allegations of document destruction and political payback — seems only to be gathering steam.

via For Deal, ties to ethics commission problems run deep | www.myajc.com.