No Legislative Misconduct Found Against Dems Who Aired 'CheckGate’ Scandal

After considering four ethics complaints against Democratic House Reps. Mike Yin and Karlee Provenza, who made last month’s “CheckGate” scandal public, House leadership concluded the two did not break any legislative rules in doing so.  

But House Speaker Pro Tempore Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, who chaired the ethics committee after House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, recused himself, concluded the ethics probe Wednesday with a mild reminder that actions have unintended consequences.

“It wasn’t legislative misconduct, but it doesn’t mean there wasn’t pain that came out of it,” said Haroldson.

He hinted during his speech to the House and confirmed later during an interview with Cowboy State Daily, that it’s not common to announce the conclusion of an ethics complaint in a public floor session.

One House lawmaker and multiple private citizens filed a total of four official complaints this session against Yin, of Jackson, and Provenza, of Laramie.

Yin is the House Minority Floor Leader.

Yin told Cowboy State Daily he hasn’t seen that happen before in his eight years’ service, adding, “if you’re saying there is no legislative misconduct, why do you feel the need to read it on the floor?”

Haroldson answered that in his own interview.

“This is a high-enough-profile complaint, and enough complaints that came in from the public, that the conversation needed to happen,” said the Republican leader. 

He also wanted it known publicly, Haroldson said, that Yin and Provenza “were working within their constitutional right.” 

And he wanted to complete the probe before the session ended so the controversy didn’t drag into the interim and potentially next year’s lawmaking session, he said.

“That being said, even though we work within our constitutional rights there are times our actions cause fallout,” Haroldson told Cowboy State Daily, echoing his floor comments from moments earlier. “We do have rules for a reason.”

Haroldson confirmed that the joint legislative rule 22-1, which lays out a procedure that “allows for receipt and investigation of complaints alleging legislative misconduct by members of the House and Senate,” does not require a lawmaker with an issue to file an ethics complaint.

Neither Provenza nor Yin broke the rule, he added.

Still, he said, “sometimes what we do, even though it may be legal, doesn’t always bring benefit. And sometimes it brings fallout and pain.”

A Little Background

Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist from Teton County who has also started a website called the Open Range Record, was escorted onto the House of Representatives floor after adjournment Feb. 9, where she handed campaign checks to four House members on behalf of a donor.

Bextel was credentialed as media for the session. She later said she didn't pick up her credential badge.

Provenza shot a photo of Bextel handing Rep. Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs, a check, while Rep. Marlene Brady, R-Green River, stood smiling with a similar piece of paper in her hand.

McCann testified Feb. 26 at a House investigative hearing on the matter that he did not realize Bextel had handed him a check until “a few seconds after” she gave it, meaning he did not know what the object was when Provenza took the photo.

On Feb. 11, Yin urged House members not to vote in favor of introducing House Bill 141, as a person who had championed it had distributed checks on the floor, and he said backing the bill could bring bad “optics.”

Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, who has not been listed as a check recipient, said Yin’s statements amounted to defamation and if such an exchange had happened, it would be “bribery and unethical.”

Bextel confirmed publicly later that day she had distributed campaign contributions in the House because she knew she was going to be in Cheyenne.

The investigation would reveal that she’d discussed the donations with the four representatives, McCann, Brady, and Reps. Joe Webb, R-Lyman, and Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette, as early as Jan. 22, however.

The donor, Don Grasso, had expected Bextel to mail the contributions, he told Cowboy State Daily on Feb. 14.

Haroldson in his Wednesday interview noted that, since the Legislature did not have rules against check-passing in either chamber as of Feb. 9, Bextel didn’t break any rules either.

She was exercising her right of expression as well, Haroldson noted.

The House, Senate, and governor all passed rules against check-passing in the Capitol in response to CheckGate, in the days that followed it.

The House investigative committee found by unanimous vote that no bribery or legislative misconduct was involved in the Feb. 9 check-passing. It also concluded that, “Were it not for the actions of Rebecca Bextel on the House floor, the subsequent disruptions of the House calendar and public uproar would not have occurred.”

The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office opened a criminal bribery investigation Feb. 14, which is separate from the House investigation in nature and scope.

Haroldson noted in his Wednesday speech to the House that rule 22-1 contains a provision saying the House can punish members for contempt or disorderly behavior or for conduct that “seriously impugns the integrity and general order of the House.”

Provenza’s conduct did impugn the integrity and general order of the House, Haroldson added. But he did not call for official punishment.  

He told Cowboy State Daily that normally the Minority Floor Leader oversees ethics probes, but Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, filled that role since Yin was the subject of the complaint. Majority Floor Leader Scott Heiner, R-Green River, also oversaw the complaints process, said Haroldson.

Where The Anger Goes

Yin and Provenza, in separate interviews with Cowboy State Daily, said at least some of the complaints appear to have been prompted by Bextel’s blog forum, the Open Range Record, accusing them in a Feb. 17 post of violating legislative rules.

“Their anger toward us is misplaced,” said Yin of the complainants. “Because none of this would have happened if she hadn’t handed out checks on the floor.”

Yin sent Cowboy State Daily a copy of one of the complaints, dated Feb. 17, with the signer’s name redacted.

Cowboy State Daily learned via public records request that the House member who filed that complaint was Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper.

The other three complaints were signed by non-legislators.

Locke’s complaint laments that Provenza sent the photo she shot of Bextel to the media on Feb. 9 — soon after the incident.

It notes that on Feb. 12, Provenza made a motion to convene a special House committee to investigate whether the check-passing was bribery or legislative misconduct.

Locke did not note in the complaint that he and every House member present that day voted in favor of convening the investigative committee.

The complaint quotes a statement Provenza told Cowboy State Daily: “I didn’t send (the photo) to leadership because I think this was such an egregious violation of the public’s trust, and I wasn’t sure I trusted leadership to handle it appropriately.”

The complaint then alleges that Yin’s statements Feb. 11 on the House floor, Provenza’s commentary to the media, and Provenza’s other public statements, were breaches of legislative rule 22-1.

“The ethics violations contained within this complaint have triggered an unprecedented degradation in the decorum of the House of Representatives,” Locke wrote. “Had the original allegations of Representatives Provenza and Yin been handled pursuant to the Joint Rules adopted by the Wyoming House, this body would be in a much different place today.”

Yin parried in a Feb. 23 written response through the House Speaker, saying his Feb. 11 statement on the floor was not an attempt to open an ethics violation, and therefore doesn’t fall under the rule.

“Nor was the exercise of my First Amendment right an improper legislative proceeding,” added Yin in his written response.

Yin elaborated in his Wednesday interview. He spoke in second-person perspective with the pronoun “you,” but was addressing his detractors in the House.

“The idea you’d would want to blame us for bringing this to the public seems crazy,” he said. “When the only person you should be blaming is Ms. Bextel for handing you a check on the floor of the House.”

Bextel did not respond by publication to a voicemail request for comment.

Yin said he also believed the House had been lax with decorum this session, airing personal matters on the floor in an unprecedented manner.

But, he added, “part of this is because this (controversy) happened on the floor of the House.” 

No Idea

Provenza told Cowboy State Daily she had “no idea” Haroldson was going to speak about the ethics complaints on the floor Wednesday.

“I didn’t know that was coming and it caught me off guard,” she said.

Haroldson had asked her during the complaint investigation if she’d apologize for taking the matter to the media instead of to House leadership under a 22-1 complaint, Provenza said.

She refused to apologize, she noted.

Haroldson confirmed that to Cowboy State Daily.

“You know, I’m grateful the complaints are dismissed,” Provenza said in her interview. “I still think there’s some level of, like, personal reprimand because members continue to say they don’t like how I handled the situation.”

She’s maintained throughout the controversy that she took the matter to the press so it would not be “swept under the rug” and she felt it was an egregious use of the House floor.

She also told Steve Peck of Wyoming Public Television in an interview last week that, as she sorted through what she’d seen on the floor, she gave the evidence to the media because she knew reporters would work to corroborate what she believed she’d seen, and seek comment from those involved. 

“I don’t know what else to say at this point,” Provenza continued Wednesday. “This fallout was not my fault. And every time we’ve had members air their grievances on the floor it’s been an attempt to deflect from their actions and try to place blame on me.”

Like Yin, Provenza said she believed the Open Range Record post, which she emphasized is Bextel’s own website, sparked the complaints.

'Slow' Here

Locke told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview that he still believes Provenza and Yin broke rule 22-1, and he does not believe he would treat his fellow lawmakers the way they treated theirs.

"It’s absolutely wrong. She basically tried these people in the court of public opinion," said Locke. "We knew the intellectually dishonest people would pile on, and they'd make darn sure these people would be guilty 'til proven innocent."

Locke said he wasn't prompted by any news story or blog to file his complaint.

Noting that the House had adopted Provenza's idea for an investigative committee, Locke said he wishes House members, including himself, hadn't been so "slow" on the issue.

"We should have called a point of order and we should have immediately demanded a rules committee - and demanded we follow 22-1," he said. At the time he'd been working on a different issue, Locke added.

Like Haroldson, Locke acknowledged the importance of Yin and Provenza's First Amendment right to speak publicly.

‘Our Reading’

David Iverson, Bextel’s business partner at the website, told Cowboy State Daily “it’s our reading of (rule) 22-1 that absolutely Karlee Provenza did violate it.”

He said when she moved the House Feb. 12 to convene the investigative committee, that amounted to alleging an ethical complaint, triggering the rule.

“I don’t know why the committee didn’t see that, but that’s our reading of it and we stand by our reporting,” he said.

He later sent a recording of the portion of Haroldson's speech referencing possible punishments for a member impugning the integrity of the House.

Taking The High Road

Webb told the House on Wednesday that he’s hurt by the controversy and trying to “take the high road.”

In 16 years of law enforcement and throughout his life, said Webb, “I’ve wondered why — how can people hurt, choose to hurt one another.”

He said he’s hurt others and acknowledges it.

“We’re supposed to forgive, we’re supposed to take the high road,” he said. “I’m trying, but I admit I’m not there yet.”

He said his wife attended the session but could only muster the courage to enter the House gallery twice.

“You haven’t seen my wife in tears,” said Webb.

The negative publicity has impacted his kids and grandkids, he said.

“But I will tell you this. The Lord feels I can handle it, and I will handle it,” said Webb. “And I will be a better man for it.”

He concluded that he wishes the best in life “to every person throughout the state that has condemned me or anybody else.”

Provenza in response told Cowboy State Daily she understands that some House members feel hurt by the incident and the fallout.

She said she has love and compassion “for every member of this body. I truly do.”

Provenza said she appreciates Webb’s words and best wishes for others, and echoes that.

But, Provenza added, she stands by her decision to release the photo publicly.

“I think the public is upset, there’s been a lack of accountability from some members,” she said.

Neiman told the House last month that he received a check from Bextel while he was in his office the first day of session, handed it off to his wife Joni, and didn't think about the issue again. 

Bextel had contacted him in January about the donation and his potentially hard-fought upcoming race, Neiman said. 

He told the House on Wednesday that he's honored to have led the chamber, and he doesn't hold animosity toward any members. 

This story has been updated to include a post-publication interview by Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.