Peter Schorsch
As if lying to the other members of the Florida Cabinet and circumventing the state constitution weren’t bad enough, Gov. Rick Scott’s troubles got worse over the weekend when ousted FDLE chief Gerald Bailey poured fuel on an already raging fire in Tallahassee implicating Scott and his top aides in a pay-to-play scandal and a political intimidation case.
Before that, on late Friday afternoon, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson weighed in on the scandals, telling reporters that federal investigators were aware of the situation in Florida.
As the questions pile up, both the Governor’s Office and the Cabinet will face increasing media scrutiny. Here are my best guesses where this scandal goes in the coming week.
Capitol Press Corps will go for the throat
So far, the Capitol Press Corps has been in reactive mode, as new developments were breaking almost hourly last week. Reporters were content to cover things as they happened. But as the situation stabilizes over this three-day weekend, expect reporters to start going for the jugular, asking the same kinds of questions prosecutors might ask, such as…
— Who ordered the governor’s general counsel, Pete Antonacci, to fire Gerald Bailey? Was it Melissa Sellers, or the governor himself?
— Why didn’t Antonacci warn Scott that this was a violation of the state Constitution? As a former state prosecutor and deputy attorney general, Antonacci is familiar with the law. Either he willfully ignored it, or he was misled by Sellers and/or the governor about the Cabinet’s level of involvement. Either way, one (or more) of these three people willfully violated the state Constitution. And, one or more of them then lied to the Cabinet about it.
— Will the governor provide Floridians with a full accounting of what happened? Any governor who did nothing wrong would provide a full, complete, and transparent accounting of the situation. So far, all the public has heard are lies, backtracking, and name calling from the Governor’s Office.
In the face of tough questions, Scott’s press shop will try to conduct business as usual. Expect the typical flurry of rosy economic announcements, but without Scott. The less he appears in public, the less chance his statements will be used against him in a court of law.
At least one Cabinet member will let slip the dogs of war
Both Jeff Atwater and Adam Putnam have future political aspirations. Both were lied to by the governor’s staff, and their constitutional authority usurped. Both have offered only tepid criticism of the governor’s handling of the situation, with the end result that neither looks like a leader. Expect one or both of them to try to change that this week.
Enter Willie Meggs
As if Nelson’s comments weren’t enough, expect more muttering about a potential criminal investigation. Bailey leveled some ugly allegations over the weekend, including the specter of a pay-to-play scandal linked to a potential Scott appointee named Bernard Klepach, and the revelation that senior Scott staffers attempted to use FDLE to intimidate political rivals, both in Orlando (Orange County Clerk Colleen Reilly) and in Tallahassee (state Rep. Alan Williams).
Leon County prosecutor Willie Meggs has the authority to order a criminal investigation. The alternative, since both FDLE and the attorney general’s office are both conflicted, is to name a special prosecutor to independently investigate.
The Return of Enu Mainigi?
Antonacci was already on his way out. But now he faces a debilitating conflict of interest. He is embroiled in a constitutional crisis with potential criminal consequences. His interests, the governor’s, and those of Chief of Staff Sellers are in direct conflict with one another. One or more of the three lied to the Cabinet. As a result, they all could be potential witnesses against one another.
Enter Enu Mainigi.
No, not as the governor’s new general counsel, but as the steady, experienced legal adviser who has guided Scott through times of serious trouble in the past. Mainigi works for Washinton, D.C., legal powerhouse Williams and Connolly, and she not only helped Scott dodge FBI investigators and indictments back in the late 1990s, but also helped shape his first administration back in 2010. Scott watchers shouldn’t be surprised to see Mainigi sneaking into the Governor’s Mansion or Scott’s home in Naples to help navigate this mess, too.
We will hear from the Legislature
There’s already chatter in Tallahassee about potential legislative hearings. State Sen. Greg Evers, the Republican chairman of the Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee, is on the record expressing irritation with the governor’s staff and how they handled Bailey’s ouster. And that was before new details emerged last week. It’s not a stretch to believe he, or another legislative body, might start issuing subpoenas.
Get out the popcorn
It’s going to be an entertaining week in Tallahassee. Buckle in and get ready for a good show.
