Just over a month ago, South Carolina’s republican Speaker of the House, Bobby Harrell, was indicted on multiple criminal charges, including misconduct in office, misuse of power, using campaign donations for personal gain and falsifying financial reports. The nine count criminal indictment against Harrell appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.

According to the Post and Courier, state and federal investigators have now widened the probe to include several other lawmakers. Authorities are looking into allegations that range from elected officials selling votes, to state lawmakers funneling money from South Carolina’s budget into their own pockets.

A large part of the investigation involves a PAC which was directly connected to Harrell, known as The Palmetto Leadership Council. According to Ashley Landess, President of the SC Policy Council, which first raised concerns with the state’s attorney general over improper conduct by Harrell:

There was rumored to be a big operating account into which money was funneled that was not related to the PAC and not used in elections. The concern was that perhaps there was a great deal of big money coming from corporations … and the nature of the expenses may have benefited the speaker.

One part of the investigation involves accusations that money from that secret account was used to “sway” lawmakers’ votes in the election of a Supreme Court Justice, Jean Toal. According to South Carolina’s Post and Courier, State Representative Jenny Horne, an outspoken supporter of Toal, is said to be one of the lawmakers under investigation in connection with those allegations.

Shortly after Harrell’s indictment, the Executive Director of the PAC at the center of the investigation, India Null, was fired. Curiously, FITSNews reports that India Null was previously employed with the SC Policy Council, the same organization that originally filed complaints against Harrell. While reports that Null may have been working undercover at the organization are only speculative at this time, if the reports turn out to be true, it would not be the first time that an undercover operative has exposed deep corruption in the South Carolina statehouse. FBI agents carried out an in depth investigation into lawmakers’ vote selling activities in the 1990’s. The historic investigation, known as “Lost Trust,” resulted in indictments against 17 state representatives.

Interestingly enough, according to the Post and Courier, as of October 8th, the website and phone number for the Harrell connected Palmetto Leadership Council PAC are no longer functioning.

Meanwhile, two members of the state’s Judicial Screening Panel, a ten member panel which screens judges like Jean Toal, prior to their approval by state lawmakers, quietly resigned from their positions during the second week of October. One of the two men just happens to be suspended republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s brother, whom he personally appointed to the judicial screening committee in 2007. The other is a Greensville Attorney, also appointed by Harrell, Don Sellers.

Aside from the vote selling investigation, authorities are also looking into whether state lawmakers have been funneling money from the state budget into their own pockets. At least one state representative seems to have confirmed these allegations to the press. According to the Post and Courier, an anonymous source within the statehouse claims:

…members of Ways and Means had the practice of doling out contracts for their own self-interest or favored contractors “down to an art form.”

The Post and Courier goes on to say that the lawmaker confirms that the state budget does not show the improprieties:

…because House members know how to hide it. They will include provisos in the budget that tell agencies where to spend certain money, then through a phone call or other private communication, they tell agency directors or staffers that the money is meant for a specific company or group.

The source goes on to say:

“If you haven’t done what was ‘wink wink’ understood with that money, you’re going to get a haircut” in the next budget cycle.

In spite of the fact that lawmakers who are now under investigation have adamantly denied any wrong doing, zrepublican Governor Nikki Haley said the investigation is “no surprise,” going on to say:

We smelled this coming.

Haley also claims this is why her administration pushed for “ethics reform” in 2012.

As the governor, if Haley was aware of illegal activity and deep corruption in her government, it was her job to do something about it. A half-hearted attempt to pass “ethics reform” is not a fulfillment of her responsibilities as governor. If she “smelled this coming” two years ago, did she report her suspicions to the authorities? Did she open an inquiry or demand an investigation into illegal activity? Of course not. She put on a front for the already angry and disillusioned voters, proposing legislation that was entirely dependent on the approval of the state’s corrupt lawmakers. Even Republican voters saw Haley’s BS “ethics reform” package as nothing more than a publicity stunt, designed to distract the public from an ongoing ethics investigation which centered on the governor herself, the first of its kind in the state’s history.

As FITSNews so eloquently put it at the time:

Trusting Nikki Haley with ethics reform is like asking Amy Winehouse to be your Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. Or hiring Jerry Sandusky to babysit your children. Or appointing Barry Bonds to investigate steroid use in baseball.

In relation to the ongoing investigation, Common Cause Director, John Crangle, who has been at the center of exposing corruption in South Carolina’s statehouse for years, recently told the Post and Courier that he expects the government’s case to go far beyond the one against Harrell.

One nine count indictment, two resignations, one termination, a suddenly defunct PAC, multiple on-going investigations, and the strong possibility that an undercover operation has been taking place for months… this looks a lot like a crumbling house of cards that is only just beginning to topple. The only question is, just how many are ultimately going to go down with it?