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Show AG still slings mud You would think that the Utah Attorney General would know better. No sooner had State Sen. Paul Rogers been exonerated by a panel of his peers for violating his Senatorial ethics than David Wilkinson, who currently holds that office, was slinging mud in Rogers direction again - and then declared his intention of not pressing the point. It was a blatant attempt to try Rogers by innuendo rather than fact -- and using the media rather than official of-ficial channels outlined for the Attorney General to make such cases. Rogers had originally been accused by Wilkinson of trying to influence a criminal investigation by the Attorney At-torney General's office into the dealings of Utah Power and Light Co. and Emery Mining Co., which is owned by the local Savage Brothers Inc. . Rogers, who was the finance chairman for Gov. Norm Bangerter's campaign for Utah Governor and carried considerable clout in the Utah Senate, claimed the discussion with Wilkinson dealt with leaks coming out of Wilkinson's office about Savage Brothers. The special committee called to investigate Rogers actions in the meeting found that he was no using undue influence in the meeting. Rogers was also accused of intervening in a lawsuit between the Utah Health Department and a private nursing home represented by a legal firm for which Rogers sometimes acts as a consultant. The special ethics committee also found that Rogers had not acted inappropriately in that instance. Unless further evidence of wrongdoing was to be introduced, that should have ended the matter. It didn't. Minutes after the ethics committee announced an-nounced its findings, Wilkinson was again accusing Rogers of vague, additional improper acts he was unwilling un-willing to explain -- but inviting the press to carry out his crusade with a brash statement: "I'm not going to blow any reporters' stories." Why the aggressive and accusatory stance by the Attorney General? Apparently he and Rogers clashed during a Senate session last week -- and Rogers won. It's unfortunate that Wilkinson has apparently decided to take a private personality conflict and turn it into a public vendetta. Unless he can back up vague accusations with dates and details, he shouldn't say anything at all. And if anyone should know that, it's the Attorney General of Utah. |