Call followed breaking news that Hogan directed millions of taxpayer dollars to business partners
On Thursday, Rep. Jamie Raskin, former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, and Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman held a press call on bombshell new reporting that found that as Governor, Larry Hogan personally directed taxpayer dollars to his firm’s clients. TIME reports that six of Hogan’s clients won ~40% of housing awards over eight years, beating out 60+ other companies.
“Maryland showered the clients of Larry Hogan’s businesses with millions of dollars while he was governor. And worse, Larry Hogan personally voted to approve some of those subsidies. Worse even than that, Hogan didn’t tell anyone that his clients were receiving those benefits. These are conflicts of interest that are specifically prohibited by Maryland law,” said former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. “The Maryland Ethics Commission specifically said to Governor Hogan, ‘you’re not allowed to vote or oversee issues that affect you, that affect your brother, or your interests in companies that may benefit from the issues you’re voting on.’ At a bare minimum, these appear to be conflicts of interest that would have required recusal or disclosure. He did neither.”
“The former governor should explain why he chose not to recuse himself from voting on these huge awards to businesses that were his private clients. Why did he conclude this was not a stark and major conflict of interest?” said Rep. Jamie Raskin.
“No elected official should ever make money off of decisions that they oversee. So I think that there are clear questions about real, serious conflict of interests here and ethical violations. I was very surprised and startled to see this, and frankly, very disappointed,” said Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman.
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