According to Geoff Pender at the Clarion Ledger the FBI is looking at State Auditor Stacey Pickering’s use of campaign funds for personal expenses, the suggested criminal angle being that Pickering may have evaded paying income taxes when he converted his campaign cash to personal use. Following is the link:
Sources: FBI probing Pickering campaign funds
There are two things that really stand out to me in the story the first being the FBI actually taking a look at Mr. Pickering based upon the on the record comments made to Pender by Tiffany Parrish, who worked on Pickering’s first campaign for State Auditor back in 2007. That said this does not mean the FBI is looking at anything regarding Pickering today. Since the FBI does not generally comment on its investigations how would anyone know otherwise for certain? All that said the Clarion Ledger running this story twelve days before the primary election strongly suggests otherwise.
The second thing that stands out to me is the allegation that Mr. Pickering was living out of his campaign funds. This would explain a few things regarding the State Auditor’s dreadful handling of the DMR scandal from the ill advised Joe Cloyd fundraiser that inspired a grassroots protest to the public records coverup orchestrated by Pickering via the misuse of a federal grand jury subpoena, for which he was later found to be in contempt of court.
Of course my long held opinion when it came to Mr. Pickering’s friends that were looting the DMR, is that Pickering’s role was to contain, rather than investigate Mississippi DMR. Continue reading “Anyone that witnessed the performance of the State Auditor in the DMR Scandal should not be surprised……”