SBI investigating Easley, too

The State Bureau of Investigation is also investigating former Gov. Mike Easley.

Attorney General Roy Cooper's office confirmed in a letter Monday to Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger that the SBI is working alongside the FBI in examining Easley's activities. Federal officials have sought testimony or evidence related to a Carteret County land development where Easley bought a lot, car dealers who provided free vehicles to Easley and the N.C. State University officials who hired Easley's wife and gave her an $88,000 raise.

"Attorney General Cooper earlier this year directed the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate matters related to the former Governor and other issues," wrote Kristi Hyman, Cooper's chief of staff. "Our agents have been working with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Cooper oversees the SBI, which also worked with federal agents on the prosecution of former House Speaker Jim Black in 2007.

More after the jump.

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Cooper and Easley are both Democrats. Berger called for a special prosecutor and chided Cooper for not appointing one, saying state courts may be the only place to pursue an investigation of Easley because the federal statute of limitations on possible public corruption cases is five years.

Berger also charged that Democratic state officials have failed to prosecute members of their own party for corruption, specifically mentioning Black, former Congressman Frank Ballance and former state Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps.

Black and Ballance were prosecuted by a Republican U.S. Attorney. But Black also pleaded guilty in state court to charges brought by a Democratic district attorney and the SBI. Phipps and former state Rep. Thomas Wright, also a Democrat, were prosecuted by the same Democratic district attorney, Colon Willoughby of Wake County, aided by the SBI.