Amid ‘Checkgate’ controversy, sheriff says criminal inquiry is ‘not politically motivated’

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CHEYENNE—On Thursday, a panel of House lawmakers held a high-profile hearing to investigate an incident involving a conservative activist handing lawmakers checks on the House floor. 

Numerous legislators testified before the panel. The House gaveled out early as it struggled to maintain a quorum. The public hearing ran more than four hours. 

Meanwhile, a few blocks from the Capitol, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office had more quietly begun its own criminal investigation into the matter. 

“They’re doing their internal investigation that they’re doing right now, but they don’t have the authority to charge,” Kozak told WyoFile on Feb. 25, the day before the House’s hearing. 

“If we have probable cause, we can obtain search warrants for cell phone records, emails and stuff where they can’t do that. So that’s why I felt it was important to do a criminal investigation, because once we start digging, who knows what we’ll find?”

The sheriff has subsequently faced accusations by some lawmakers of being politically motivated. But Kozak maintains that’s not the case. 

WyoFile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide first reported that Rebecca Bextel, a conservative Jackson activist, handed out campaign donation checks to several Republican lawmakers on the House floor on Feb. 9 following adjournment. The $1,500 checks were from Don Grasso, a Jackson resident since 2020. 

The exchanges occurred two days before the House’s vote on a housing bill, House Bill 141, that Bextel has vocally supported. 

Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, said before the House voted on the bill that the measure came from a “specific person in Teton County” who wanted to revive legislation that failed last year.

“This is not an accusation. This is solely just optics for the Legislature,” Yin said on the House floor. “My understanding is that that person handed out checks on the floor of the Legislature during the session.”

After the House voted to advance the bill, Rep. Rachel Rogriguez-Williams, a Cody Republican, accused Yin of making “an allegation of quid pro quo” and “a defamatory statement.” Distributing checks on the House floor “essentially would be bribery and unethical,” she said. 

The sheriff’s investigation aims to discern if lawmakers voted a certain way because of the checks they received. “That’s where maybe a text message, email, something like that, might connect the two. And so that’s kind of what we need to investigate,” Kozak said. 

But the investigation could also potentially clear the air of allegations of wrongdoing, he added. 

“Maybe we do get enough probable cause to check emails and text messages and things like that,” Kozak said. “I mean, we could say, ‘There absolutely was no link. We didn’t find anything.’” 

Kozak emphasized that his office’s investigation is separate from the House inquiry. “They still gotta answer to their own ethics and things like that, which we’re not investigating,” he said. 

Legislative response

The House and Senate launched separate investigations into the incident after details about the check exchanges became public. Both chambers banned receiving campaign contributions during a legislative session. Gov. Mark Gordon also issued an executive order barring such contributions in state buildings. 

Then the Senate killed HB 141 on Monday because of the controversy surrounding it this session. 

Kozak’s office announced Feb. 14 the launch of a criminal investigation into what’s now known as “Checkgate.” The investigation aims to determine whether checks distributed to Wyoming lawmakers on the House floor constituted bribery. 

“Community complaints and media reports” prompted the sheriff’s inquiry, the office said. 

“Our community deserves full transparency, and alleged criminal conduct involving our lawmakers deserves no less than a thorough investigation,” Kozak said in a statement.

The sheriff’s criminal inquiry evoked strong reactions in the Legislature. 

Yin, the Jackson Democrat, said during an emotional night on the House floor that he wished the sheriff hadn’t opened an investigation. 

“I think that created a real problem for everyone involved,” said Yin. “We could have had a swift committee move very swiftly, and I know the chairman of the committee really wanted to move swiftly. I’m not sure what he does now.”

That night, House lawmakers voted to continue the lower chamber’s investigation after the chairman of the investigatory committee, Casper Republican Rep. Art Washut, had recommended pausing the inquiry to let the law enforcement investigation play out first.

Others went farther, alleging that the criminal investigation was politically motivated. 

“I’ve never seen a sheriff bring up an investigation with a Facebook post on Saturday and he hasn’t had to speak with his own agency until Monday,” Gillette Republican Rep. John Bear said on the House floor. “So it’s clear that the sheriff has made this a political thing as well.”

Bear told a reporter he received a check from Bextel, though not on the House floor. Because he did not receive the check on the House floor, Bear was not asked to testify at last week’s hearing.

‘A possible crime’

Kozak, who is up for reelection this year, maintained that the criminal inquiry is “definitely not politically motivated,” given that people had alleged a possible crime had occurred. “That’s our job, right? To investigate crime,” he said.  

Kozak told WyoFile he had consulted other law enforcement agencies about looking into the incident. 

The sheriff contacted the Wyoming Highway Patrol. One lawmaker, Casper Republican Rep. Jayme Lien, asked why the highway patrol wasn’t investigating the incident, given that the check passing took place in the Capitol, where highway patrol troopers are posted. 

But there’s a conflict, because highway patrol receives money from the Legislature, and troopers are also responsible for providing security to lawmakers during session. 

“Given those structural relationships, it is prudent to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest when a matter directly involves the legislative branch,” Wyoming Highway Patrol Col. Tim Cameron told WyoFile in an email. 

What’s more, the check-passing incident “falls outside” the highway patrol’s “statutory mission and traditional scope of enforcement responsibility,” Cameron said. 

Kozak also contacted the Cheyenne Police Department to ask if the department wanted to assign any detectives to assist with the investigation. The department ultimately didn’t put any officers on the case. 

“While we are always willing to provide mutual aid and partnership, there did not seem to be an imminent need to add additional resources,” a spokesperson for the department told WyoFile. 

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Kozak checked to see if the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation was looking into the situation, but it wasn’t. The division can only become involved in an investigation after consulting with the attorney general, if a local agency requests it, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox told WyoFile in an email. As of Tuesday morning, the agency hadn’t received any such request, he said. 

Kozak also reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the sheriff said he was told the situation didn’t meet the agency’s criteria for an investigation. 

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Denver field office said the agency “cannot confirm or deny any particular contact” or investigation. The spokesperson said that, generally, “allegations of criminal conduct are reviewed by the FBI for their merit, with consideration of any applicable federal laws.”

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