Reese: Utah Lawmakers Must Rein in the State Attorney General
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes speaks during the Solidarity Rally against racism at Washington Square Park in Salt Lake City, Utah on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. (Rishi Deka | Daily Utah Chronicle)
February 10, 2021
John Swallow and Mark Shurtleff, the two people who served as Utah’s attorney general before current Attorney General Sean Reyes, both left the position embroiled in corruption scandals — and Reyes is likely to join his predecessors. After years of chaos in the attorney general’s office, Rep. Brian King has filed H.B. 232, which would limit the powers of the state attorney general by requiring them to get the governor’s permission to file an amicus curare brief or join in legal matters outside of Utah. Rep. Andrew Stoddard has also introduced a resolution of impeachment against Reyes, an avid Trump supporter and member of the Republican Attorney Generals Association, in order to prompt an investigation into his actions as attorney general. RAGA encouraged supporters to join in the insurrection that took place on Jan. 6 at the US Capitol. Reyes has sought to undermine the US election and overturn democracy all while dishonoring the state of Utah. These bills would put a check on Reyes’s office and help suppress the political aspirations of a man who has become dangerous to our state and our democracy.
This past December, Reyes joined 17 other state attorneys general in seeking to overturn the election results in swing states that Trump lost, such as Pennsylvania. None of these cases had anything to do with Utah. Our election results were never expected to be fraudulent and our vote-by-mail system is widely supported by Utah Republicans. We have a secure voting system in Utah and national election security officials confirmed that the 2020 election was the most secure in US history. Reyes ignored the facts and, in a legal opinion known as an amicus brief, sought instead to reinstall Trump as president even if it meant destroying American democracy — all while representing the state of Utah.
King decided to run H.B. 232 after Gov. Gary Herbert and then-Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox issued a statement at a daily COVID-19 briefing after Reyes had announced the amicus brief. “The Attorney General did not consult us before signing on to this brief,” the statement read. “So we don’t know what his motivation is. Just as we would not want other states challenging Utah’s election results, we do not think we should intervene in other states’ elections.” Reyes used public funds to pursue a lawsuit that was about his personal political ambition and support for Trump — not Utahns’ best interests. King’s bill would put a check on Utah’s attorney general office and limit the power that position holds, which Reyes has demonstrated is absolutely necessary.
Stoddard filed articles of impeachment against Reyes to gain information about Reyes’s relationship with RAGA, on whose executive committee he sits. RAGA sent out a robocall on Jan. 5 encouraging supporters, whom it referred to as “patriots,” to attend the planned insurrection “to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our election.” RAGA leadership, seeking to absolve themselves of responsibility, insist that staffers sent out the robocall. However, Reyes’s actions and rhetoric following the election show that this robocall was very much in line with RAGA leaders’ views. Stoddard’s decision was, of course, met with backlash from Utah Republicans. Speaker of the House Brad Wilson said, “Spending valuable time with prolonged debate on the matter would hinder our ability to handle the more pressing matters at hand.” But on the same day that Wilson issued that statement, the Utah House debated H.R. 3, a resolution honoring Utah Jazz player Donovan Mitchell. Wilson’s statement was clearly an excuse not to address Reyes’ impeachable actions.
Stoddard’s impeachment resolution is not guaranteed to result in Reyes’s impeachment, but it is the only way to get a proper investigation into Reyes’s ties to the Jan. 6 insurrection. “I know it sounds extreme, but this is really the only way I have to get information. We don’t have any middle ground when it comes to investigation,” Stoddard said in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune.
Reyes has proven to be a rogue representative who prizes his own political agenda over Utahns’ values. Utah lawmakers should take King’s and Stoddard’s concerns — and their own responsibility to hold Reyes accountable — very seriously.
Gary Lawlor • Feb 10, 2021 at 9:18 pm
Utah lawmakers have been looking hard during this session for ways to hold police more accountable. I think it is time to draw attention to the elephant in the room.
The elephant in the room is the one man in the State of Utah whose job it already is to oversee the police in the entire state. The elephant is charged, also, with coordinating and training those leaders at the county level whose job is the same – to oversee the police.
If the elephant in the room were doing his job, we would not be searching for some new law or governmental structure to do the work of policing the police.
The elephant’s name is Sean Reyes, and the position he is keeping anyone competent from filling is that of Utah State Attorney General.
Mr. Reyes courted our votes last year by painting a truly lofty picture of himself as having been a loving and diligent shepherd of the people of Utah, while at the same time ridiculing his challenger’s focus on precisely the problem we now face – the job that our newly re-elected elephant is still neglecting. Reyes actually said that David Leavitt’s insistence upon reform disqualified Leavitt for the job of attorney general. Think of that claim, in the light of the events in the nation and in the state of Utah in the second half of last year – the events that have us scrambling today for solutions.
Reyes’ office must radiate integrity and high expectations, and Reyes must work with the 29 individual county attorneys to help them identify problems with the police before those problems get too big, and precious lives – like that of U of U athlete Lauren McCluskey – are endangered and lost. If he won’t do it, it is indeed time to launch an investigation to find out why not, and to see whether there are impeachable offenses behind his failure.