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Political expert says Swallow ‘probably should step down’

Posted at 10:01 AM, Jun 05, 2013
and last updated 2013-06-05 12:58:42-04

Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, visited Good Day Utah to talk about allegations against Utah Attorney John Swallow, as well as Mitt Romney's Utah political retreat.

Jowers said for the good of the state it would probably be right for Swallow to leave his position.

"It becomes just impossible for Swallow to function and therefore makes it tough for our attorney general's office to function," he said. "There's four different investigations at least going on about General Swallow and his predecessor Mark Shurtleff."

Jowers said on the other hand if he were Swallow's lawyer he would advise the Attorney General not to resign.

He said once Swallow steps down there will be public perception that he really did do something wrong, and something like that is tough to overcome.

"For personal reasons I can see why he's going to stay there as long as he can," he said. "For public reasons it's probably true he should probably step down or at least take an unpaid leave of absence or something and let the investigations proceed."