Calhoun Bribery Scandal 2020
The Calhoun Bribery Scandal was a state level scandal in the western state of Calhoun, Newreath. Whilst the scandal occured in Calhoun, it was the federal government, both Congress anad the Department of Justice, that discovered, investigated and resolved the scandal. The scandal involved the Calhoun Union of Judicial Associates, an association of judicial and legal figures from the State of Calhoun, paying then Governor Christopher Barnes (Republican 2004-2012) and Governor Payton Brooks (Liberal 2012-2020) hundreds of thousands of dollars to appoint their members to the State Supreme Court.
The scandal is the first major scandal to rock the judiciary of the United States of Newreath and has resulted in the resignations and incarcarations of all those involved. It was also the first major political scandal that has involved both of the major parties; Republican and Liberal. The scandal resulted in major reforms to the way justices are picked and vetted. The scandal did dramatically effect the public's confidence in the judiciary but this has since improved due to the bipartisan reforms into the judiciary.
Timeline
October 2019
In October 2019, Governor Payton Brooks (Liberal) of Calhoun announced her nomination of Mr. Johnathon Cole to be the next Associate Justice of the Calhoun Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Riggs. Governor Brooks had initially favoured State Attorney Madison Campbell for the position but changed her mind on the morning of the announcement. The announcement did not break on any national news outlets as State level judicial appointments are rarely headline news. Mr. Cole's nomination was a breeze and he was swiftly confirmed by the Calhoun State Senate thanks to the simple majority that the Liberals hold in the State Senate.
January 2020
In January 2020, Calhoun's 5th Congressional District's congressman, Aiden Marsh (Republican) received information from a Whistleblower in Governor Brooks' administration. The whistleblower highlighted numerous payments to Governor Brooks of over $20,000 every month from offshore accounts for the last two years. Noticeably, the payments stopped a month after Justice Rigg's retirement and only started again after the appointment of Cole to the State Supreme Court. Congressman Marsh initially found it difficult to convince his liberal colleagues that there was something that needed to be investigated but after weeks of lobbying them, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee officially authorised Marsh's investigation into these payments.
February 2020
In February 2020, Congressman Marsh, after working alongside Department of Justice investigators, presented to the House Judiciary Committee evidence that the payments received by Governor Brooks came from an organisation called "Calhoun Union of Judicial Associates". After further investigations, it found that payments to Brooks started during her first campaign for Governor in 2012 just one week after she announced a list of names which she would pick from to nominate to the State Judiciary. Over 80% of those names are members or affiliates of the NUJA including Associate Justice Cole and State Chief Justice Holland. Shortly after this evidence was presented to the House Judiciary Committee, Congress voted to recommend the appointment of a special prosecutor by the Attorney General. On February 25th, President Carter announced that the Attorney General would be appointing a special prosecutor to investigate what has now been named the "Justice Bribery Scheme".
March 2020
On March 15th, in a televised address to the nation, Attorney General Jay Jordan announced the findings of the Special Prosecutor. The Special Prosecutor found that not only had Governor Payton Brooks (Liberal) been accepting bribes from the CUJA, but so had her predecessor, Governor Christopher Barnes (Republican). Further investigations found that the two Governors were in breach of Bribery, Corruption and Financial Laws and that the governing board of CUJA were also in breach of these laws. State Chief Justice Holland, Associate Justices Cole, Mooney, Hudson and Wade were also found to be in knowledge of these crimes and have participated in the money laundering aspect of the crimes. Aside from Governor Barnes' and Governor Brooks' accountants, no other individuals were found to have knowledge of these crimes.
On March 16th, Governor Payton Brooks officially announced her resignation as Governor of the State of Calhoun and has been succeeded by her Lieutenant Governor Rory Williams. Governors Brooks and Barnes, their accountants, State Associate Justices Cole, Mooney, Hudson and Wade have all resigned from their positions and have surrendered to the Department of Justice. State Chief Justice Holland refused to resign. Speaker of the House Nicolas Brennan (Liberal) then announced a formal impeachment vote against State Chief Justice Holland. The vote passed the House of Representatives with biparatisan support on March 20th and the Senate formally removed State Chief Justice Holland from office on March 30th.
Aftermath
In a surprise show of bipartisanship, President Carter (Liberal) and Governor Dawson (Republican nominee for President) released a joint statement in condemnation of this scandal and have called for a review of the process regarding judicial appointments. President Carter was quick to distance himself from Fmr. Governor Brooks who he had previously considered to be his Vice President in 2016 but it has already begun to hurt him in the polls after several attack ads were run against President Carter on the basis of his closeness to former Governor Brooks. Both Carter and Dawson have denounced these ads.
All those involved were found guilty of a breaching a combination of bribery, corruption and financial laws. They have since been imprisoned.
Before this scandal, only federal judicial nominees were vetted by the security services automatically. State judicial nominees could be vetted by request from state legislatures. in April 2020, the Federal Congress passed the Judicial Nominations Act (2020) that mandated all judicial nominees, both at state and federal level, must be vetted by the security services and disclose their financial records from 10years before their appointments.