John Allen’s House Ethics Show Trial Speeds To A Conclusion Today

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Quite a few articles have already been written about the suspect and biased House Ethics Committee’s investigation into Republican David Cook.  The process appears to have been driven by Bas Aja, a powerful lobbyist close to House Speaker Rusty Bowers, and is targeting Cook for his friendship and support of Aja’s daughter, Anna Marie Knorr, herself a popular lobbyist at the Capitol.  Representative John Allen was hand-picked by Speaker Bowers to run the Committee for just this one investigation while Representative TJ Shope remains the Chairman for all other Committee work.

Weeks after the Committee interviewed Cook, and after the Legislature itself moved to Sine Die and end its business, the House Ethics Committee members were notified today that the investigator’s report was done and they were provided with the report, perhaps 2,000 or more pages of documents, and over 12 hours of audio testimony to review.

However, in spite of the volume of material, Chairman Allen gave them just one day to review it all before they need to meet and vote on what action to take.

Capitol observers we spoke to said the pace of things indicated that this was “a hanging jury” and that Allen likely had the votes he needed from the Democrats on the Committee to refer the matter to the full House and to try to further damage Cook’s reputation and re-election prospects.  The other two Republicans on the Committee are Rep. Regina Cobb and Rep. Gail Griffin, and those we spoke to had no sense if they would rubber stamp Allen’s decision in the name of unity or if they would object to the process, the pace, or the eyebrow-raising investigation run by liberal Democrat Mark Kokanovich, who captured national attention with his writings during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings (RELATED ARTICLE: Cook Exposes Abuses By House Ethics Committee)

“The one thing Cook has working in his favor is he didn’t lay down and get run over by the process.  He communicated to the members along the way, so they know everything he did in terms of producing lots of material, they know Anna Marie Knorr’s statements, they know lots of that stuff.” said one observer, adding “But none of that matters unless Cobb or Griffin or both actually stand up and say something.  If they roll over, Cook is going to lose 5-0.”

Damaging Cook’s re-election prospects might be all that Allen can do, as the full House is no longer in session to take up the matter.  Ironically, Cook was one of the lawmakers fighting hard to keep the House in session, which would have made a full hearing more likely.  But that would have worked out better for Cook, because he could actually present a defense at a full hearing.  According to John Allen, neither Cook nor his attorneys will be allowed to speak at the Committee hearing and, once the hearing is over, the Kokanovich report will be given to the media without any rebuttal evidence from Cook’s team.  Which means a liberal media feeding frenzy at Cook’s expense.

“It is like the Trump impeachment really, where it is basically a show trial and they want to get Cook for something, anything, as long as they can hurt him politically.”

The hearing is scheduled for 1 pm in House Hearing Room 4 and it can be streamed online from the Legislature’s website.