This came over the transom last week from the Janet Nguyen for state Senate campaign:
District Attorney Clears Supervisor Janet Nguyen of Politically Motivated Complaints
Garden Grove, CA – – Stephen Larson, an attorney for County Supervisor and CalOptima Board Member Janet Nguyen, announced today that the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, in correspondence prepared by Senior Assistant District Attorney Michael Lubinski, has confirmed in writing that it has completed its investigation regarding conflict-of-interest allegations concerning Supervisor Nguyen.
According to Mr. Lubinski, the District Attorney has concluded — after conducting witness interviews and reviewing campaign finance documents, contracts, and voting records — “that no criminal conflict of interest laws were violated by Janet Nguyen” in her position as a CalOptima Board member.Although Supervisor Nguyen has always been confident that nothing improper ever occurred and that the complaints submitted to the District Attorney were politically motivated, she is pleased to receive this written confirmation from the District Attorney and, through that office, the FPPC.
This is obviously good news for Janet Nguyen’s campaign. For one thing, to be exonerated four months before the June primary is good for campaign focus, morale and fundraising. Plus, it mostly removes an arrow from the quiver of any hit pieces against her. Although, politics being what it is, there’s nothing to prevent an independent expenditure committee from sending out mail exclaiming Nguyen was “under investigation.” It would be extremely misleading, but mangling the truth is not an unheard of quality in campaigns — or mau-maus launched by public employee unions like the OCEA.
Also, the DA’s exoneration provides the Nguyen campaign with pre-preemptive ammo.
