Roy Cooper says he investigates corruption too.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general e-mailed Dome today to note that the State Bureau of Investigation, which he oversees, also played a role in the corruption cases mentioned in a recent N&O article.
In a sidebar to the story, we had written that the Eastern District U.S. Attorney's office brought down a number of prominent Democrats in recent years, including Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, former Speaker Jim Black, U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance and lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings.
Spokeswoman Noelle Talley said that the SBI was involved in those cases and more than 450 public corruption cases over the past eight years.
"Keep in mind that under state law, our office can take over criminal prosecution of cases when requested to by local District Attorneys," she wrote. "We are often asked by DAs to prosecute cases against public officials including sheriffs, judges, state legislators and others."
She added that Cooper has pushed for the legislature to give his office the power to convene investigative grand juries in public corruption cases.
As we noted, federal prosecutors have more powerful grand juries than state and local prosecutors.
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Re: Cooper: We investigate corruption too
You don't pay much attention, do you? Cooper & Easley have never been close, and the governor doesn't appoint the AG (at least I think that's what your post suggests you believe, as amazing as that level of civic and political ignorance would be in someone so vocal about politics.) If you don't mean to suggest that she will appoint one of those two as AG, why are they relevant to this discussion?