Over the coming hours, DPVA will highlight different reasons why
Cuccinelli would be a damaging choice for Virginia's Supreme Court.
Other reasons Cuccinelli is unfit for the bench:
#1: Cuccinelli's record on women's health
#2: Cuccinelli's record on LGBT issues
Here is a sampling of Cuccinelli's multiple conflict of interest scandals:
Virginia’s Inspector General found “that a deputy in the office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II improperly collaborated with energy companies.” Virginia’s inspector general has found that a deputy in the office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II improperly collaborated with energy companies in a legal dispute over natural gas royalties in southwest Virginia, according to a report released Tuesday. [Washington Post, 10/15/13]
More precisely, Virginia’s Inspector General found that Cuccinelli’s office had “inappropriately used Commonwealth resources” and that a senior assistant attorney general acted “beyond the scope of her authority and position.” Based upon the results of this inquiry, the OSIG confirmed that the SAAG inappropriately used Commonwealth resurces in support of the aforementioned private litigation beyond the scope of her authority and position. [OSIG, 10/15/13]
The parent of one of the relevant companies — CONSOL — gave $32,000 to Cuccinelli’s campaign for attorney general, and more than $111,000 to his campaign for governor. [VPAP, acc. 3/8/16]
A federal judge called the attorney general’s office’s actions “shocking.” Within the 85-page decision, Sargent wrote: "Shockingly, these emails show that the Board, or at least Pigeon, has been actively involved in assisting EQT and CNX with the defense of these cases, including offering advice on and providing information for use on the Motions before the court. [Associated Press via Bristol Herald-Courier, 6/6/13]
As Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli failed to disclose $4,500 worth of gifts from Jonnie Williams and more than $10,000 worth of stock in his company. Cuccinelli had initially failed to disclose, as is required for Virginia elected officials, that he owned more than $10,000 in stock in a single company, Star Scientific. About a month later, Cuccinelli announced that he had not reported gifts worth $4,500 from Williams. The gifts were two stays that Cuccinelli and his family had made at Williams’s Smith Mountain Lake vacation house, one last summer and the other over Thanksgiving in 2010, when Williams also supplied a catered turkey dinner. [Washington Post, 7/18/13]
Cuccinelli accepted $55,000 from Bobby Thompson, the director of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. Democrats called on Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) on Monday to give away more than $55,000 in campaign contributions he received from a man who served as director of a charitable organization that is now under scrutiny by officials in three states and that led an effort to loosen laws governing charity registration in Virginia this year. The Democrats' calls came on the day that Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) said he would give an established veterans charity a $5,000 contribution he had received from Bobby Thompson, who until last fall was director of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. [Washington Post, 5/18/10]
“Thompson was Cuccinelli's second-largest individual donor” in the 2009 cycle. Thompson was Cuccinelli's second-largest individual donor before the November election. [Washington Post, 5/18/10]
CNN: U.S. Navy Veterans Association was “a charity scam that stole millions of dollars intended for Navy veterans.” A man convicted of running a charity scam that stole millions of dollars intended for Navy veterans was sentenced in an Ohio courtroom Monday to 28 years in prison […] The defendant was convicted in a Cuyahoga County court last month of running a telemarketing scam through his Florida-based U.S. Navy Veterans Association. Authorities have said the charity raised about $100 million from donors in 41 states from 2002 to 2010, but little went to help veterans, The Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland reported. [CNN, 12/16/13]
Cuccinelli gave away the funds only after two months of public discussion and pressure. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has decided to give away $55,500 in campaign contributions he received last year from the director of an embattled veterans charity organization that is under investigation in Virginia and several other states. Cuccinelli's decision, announced Wednesday, comes after two months of controversy and unanswered questions about the activities of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association and its mysterious director, Bobby Thompson. [Roanoke Times, 7/28/10]
Thompson was subsequently sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison for his crimes. Bobby Thompson, convicted mastermind of a national veterans charity scam that bilked donors out of an estimated $100 million, was sentenced to 28 years in prison this morning by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Gall. Thompson is a stolen identity used by John Donald Cody, 67, to set up the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, based in Tampa, which solicited donations in Ohio and 40 other states from 2002-2010. [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 12/17/13]