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NC House Speaker’s Ethics Challenged Again After The Discovery Of Emails To DEQ

Photo of a woman working in a chicken processing plant.
Photo of a woman working in a chicken processing plant.

Ethics questions continue to swirl around North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore after reports that a high-ranking aid in his office contacted the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to inquire about storage tanks at a chicken processing plant in Siler City owned by Moore and his business partners. 

Host Frank Stasio talks with News and Observer investigative reporter Dane Kane about an ethics complaint filed by the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability against North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore.

In recently uncovered emails from 2016, Moore’s aid, Mitch Gillespie started a chain of correspondence with DEQ that may have aided in the sale of the chicken processing plant. After discovering these emails, watchdog group Campaign for Accountability filed an ethics complaint with the North Carolina State Ethics Commission.

Dan Kane is on the investigative team at The News & Observer and has been covering this story. Since his reporting came out earlier this week, Moore publicly denied any knowledge of the e-mails and provided a letter showing that the state ethics investigation about the property is closed.

Kane joins host Frank Stasio to talk about his look into whether Moore received preferential treatment by virtue of his office as well as allegations that Moore pushed through legislation to help clients at his private law firm.

Copyright 2019 North Carolina Public Radio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Dana is an award-winning producer who began as a personality at Rock 92. Once she started creating content for morning shows, she developed a love for producing. Dana has written and produced for local and syndicated commercial radio for over a decade. WUNC is her debut into public radio and she’s excited to tell deeper, richer stories.