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Prosecutor says feds can’t dictate evidence in Shurtleff, Swallow cases

Posted at 9:10 AM, Nov 10, 2015
and last updated 2015-11-10 11:10:57-05

SALT LAKE CITY — Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings says federal authorities cannot dictate what evidence can be used in the pending prosecutions of former Utah Attorneys General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow.

In a motion filed in 3rd District Court on Monday, Rawlings repeated his request that a judge assert control over the case and demand evidence from the U.S. Justice Department that he believes is vital to the prosecution of Shurtleff.

“The DOJ does not get a mulligan because a State prosecutor is interested in the full scope of the case and the defendant in the State case is interested in the same. Particularly when, to their credit, local FBI agents were in-tune with the overlap of the full scope of the case, but were not able to sit down and play that grand piano, through no fault of their own,” Rawlings wrote.

Read the filing here:

The U.S. Justice Department has argued that it has provided thousands of pages of information that it believes are relevant to the corruption cases against Swallow and Shurtleff. Rawlings, who has accused them of withholding evidence, argues that they should not be the ones determining what is relevant to his prosecution.

Rawlings and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill are prosecuting Shurtleff and Swallow on corruption-related charges, accusing the former attorneys general of getting gifts and donations from people under investigation by the Utah Attorney General’s Office. A hearing on the evidence is set for December.