2008 trade mission to Argentina raises questions that prolong impeachment talks

COLUMBIA — Legislators on an impeachment panel today were skeptical that a 2008 trade mission to Argentina — during which Gov. Mark Sanford saw his mistress — was legitimate business.

The trip, originally scheduled for only Brazil, has prolonged the hearings by the House Judiciary Impeachment Subcommittee.

“The governor’s office told us that the 2008 trip was for state business; if you look at all the events surrounding it, it is difficult to believe that,” said Rep. Jim Harrison, a Columbia Republican, who is leading impeachment talks.

Rep. Greg Delleney, a Chester Republican who wants Sanford to be impeached, got deliberations today off to a fiery start.

The 2008 trade mission to Argentina was an abuse of power, Delleney said.

“To me, it’s just obvious that this trip was a personal trip and state business was kind of thrown in as a cover,” Delleney said.

The governor’s actions were premeditated, he said. Sanford kept a light schedule while in Buenos Aires and wracked up charges for late departure from his hotel that were billed to the state, Delleney said.

Swati Patel, in-house counsel for the governor’s office, defended the trip as legitimate business. She referred to documents from Department of Commerce staffers and other communication records compiled by the governor’s office.

She said she wanted to help frame the discussion by adding that the State Law Enforcement Division conducted a review of the 2008 trip and found no wrongdoing and no misuse of funds.

Patel said that Sanford did not instruct the Commerce Department to schedule the Argentine leg of the trip and he did not plan any of the details.

She also reminded the subcommittee that Sanford did not miss any economic development activities scheduled while he was in Argentina.

The trade mission was originally scheduled to only include Brazil and end with a bird hunting trip in Cordoba, Argentina. Each guest paid his own way on the hunting portion of the trip.

The governor said he didn’t want to hunt the whole time and asked Commerce to come up with business meetings for him to attend, according to Sanford’s office. One Commerce Department staffer, Ford Graham, accompanied Sanford on the Argentina leg of the trip.

“If Governor Sanford intended to go to Buenos Aires for purposes other than official business, he never would have allowed Graham to accompany him,” according to responses provided by the governor’s office for members of the subcommittee.

But the governor reimbursed the state $3,300 in June and July for the Argentine leg of the 2008 trade mission.

That act is an admission of guilt, Rep. James Smith, a Columbia Democrat, said after today’s hearing.

Harrison asked Patel: “If the governor believed the 2008 (portion) was legitimate state business why did he reimburse?”

Patel said Sanford did at the time what he thought was best. He was going to get criticism one way or another, and he chose to reimburse, she said.

The subcommittee will meet again at 2 p.m. Wednesday to continue deliberations. Harrison had expected the subcommittee to finish its work today, but he said after the hearing that the legislators will need more time to digest the information they received.

The panel took some action today. They eliminated from consideration four trips aboard the state aircraft that Sanford allegedly took for personal and political reasons.

Five other trips remain under their scrutiny.

Also being considered during the impeachment proceedings is the Sanford’s five-day clandestine trip to Argentina in June. Sanford had led his staff to believe he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

The governor’s chief of staff Scott English responded to the subcommittee questions on that trip, among other documents gathered for their review.

Whether the state had a chain of command in place during the governor’s trip is a crucial question in the impeachment hearing.

English told the subcommittee that he first learned that Sanford was in Argentina on June 24, from The State newspaper’s Web site. The State had been leaked e-mails between Sanford and his mistress months earlier. The newspaper used that information to send a reporter to the Atlanta airport as the governor returned from Buenos Aires.

English said the governor told him he would take time off work after the legislative session ended.

“He did not tell me where he was going and I did not ask,” English said in a written statement provided at the request of the subcommittee.

Later on June 24, Sanford tearfully admitted to an extramarital affair. From there, questions about his travel were raised and that raised the spectre of impeachment

English said that around 8:30 a.m. on June 23 he was handed a telephone in the Governor’s Office by a high-level staffer who had Sanford on the line.

“The governor assured me that he was fine and said that he would be in the office the following day,” English wrote. “I did not ask him where he was and he did not volunteer his whereabouts. I subsequently learned from press reporters that the governor had been in Argentina when he and I spoke by phone.”

English said that he believed that had it been necessary to reach Sanford in an emergency he would have left a message on the governor’s cell phone indicating that he needed an immediate response.

Sanford had said earlier that had there been an emergency during his trip that he could be reached through “back channels” but he never elaborated on that.

The subcommittee will make a recommendation to the full House Judiciary Committee, which is comprised of 25 legislators. The full committee is expected to conclude its work on the impeachment resolution before Christmas.

Check back with postandcourier.com for updates from the hearing, and follow Post and Courier statehouse reporter Yvonne Wenger on Twitter at @yvonnewenger for the latest news from Columbia.