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Utah Attorney General served with subpoena

Posted at 9:32 PM, Sep 26, 2013
and last updated 2013-09-26 23:32:32-04

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah Attorney General John Swallow was served a subpoena Thursday; the state house investigative committee is asking Swallow to turn over emails, receipts and cell phone conversations dating back several years to December 2009.

Members of the investigative committee said their sole job is to separate fact from fiction.

"There are a number of allegations, and we don't which, if any of those, are factual," said Rep. Jim Dunnigan, who is the chair of the special investigative committee.

Dunnigan said the subpoenas are critical. The first was issued to the Office of the Utah Attorney General with a list of 11 requests.

Here are some examples of the information the committee is seeking:

"Documents referring or relating to food, lodging, entertainment or travel provided to John Swallow or to any member of his family by any person subject of an official review of any kind by his office."

The subpoena also requests communications between Swallow and a list of names, some of which may sound familiar to the public, like Jeremy Johnson, Marc Sessions Jenson, Jason Powers and Richard Rawle.

The second subpoena was to Swallow himself, and it included requests like, "all documents referring to the use or requested use by you or any member of your family of a boat, plane or helicopter controlled by Jeremy Johnson or his wife."

Dunnigan said they are collecting necessary data.

"We've had our investigators working for a couple weeks now and our special counsel, and they think there's information they think would help us advance the investigation," he said.

Dunnigan said he couldn’t offer a specific time table regarding the length of the investigation.

"Our investigation I would say is proceeding, it's accelerating, as I said we have boots on the ground our investigators have been working for about two weeks now, and so this is information that we think will be helpful,” he said.

Despite Swallow being cleared by federal authorities, and some lawmakers questioning whether the state's probe will cost taxpayers unnecessary money, Dunnigan said: "I don't believe the folks in Washington D.C. are in charge of governance in Utah. I think that falls to the public of Utah and their elected officials, and they've asked and charged us with determining the facts."

The committee meets Oct. 9. Swallow has until Oct. 11 to hand over the documents requested, which he has long said he will cooperate with. There are currently four ongoing investigations, including the House's. The Utah Bar Association and the Davis and Salt Lake County District Attorneys are also conducting probes.