GOP Says Nixon Can’t Find “Mr. X”
Filed Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Following Missouri Attorney General (and likely Democratic nominee for Governor) Jay Nixon’s decision not file criminal charges against Ameren for the Taum Sauk dam collapse, state Republicans are continuing their cries of conflict of interest.
Nixon accepted $19,000 in campaign donations from sources connected to Ameren. Following GOP attacks and media reports across the state, Nixon says he has since returned the money.
In their latest attack, Republicans point to an Associated Press report that a 2,000-page report provided to Nixon by the Missouri Highway Patrol informed the Attorney General that “an unknown Ameren employee” removed probes designed to shut down the plant and prevent an overflow if water ever reached them immediately after the Taum Sauk disaster.
Republicans say Nixon made the decision not to file charges without identifying the Ameren employee, referred to as “Mr. X”, who removed that critical evidence in the scene of the “worst man-made disaster in Missouri’s history”.
“The Attorney General, who is acting Reynolds County Prosecutor in the criminal investigation, can request subpoenas to force Ameren or Mr. X to come forward,” charged a GOP press release.
“Missourians are owed an explanation as to why Jay Nixon, the criminal prosecutor in the Ameren Taum Sauk case, failed to identify Ameren’s Mr. X,” said Jared Craighead, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party.
“Even though the Missouri Highway Patrol provided his office with a thorough, 2,000 page report, Nixon failed to follow up on a critical lead: the identity of the Ameren employee, and potential suspect, who removed critical evidence from the scene of a disaster. It is also unknown if Nixon requested a subpoena to learn the identity of Mr. X.”
“Reasonable people are entitled to believe that a competent criminal prosecutor would have been interested in knowing the identity of Mr. X,” Craighead said. “Nixon’s incompetence in the Taum Sauk case is truly breathtaking,” Craighead said.
In the meantime, the AP reports that state utility regulators are reopening their investigation into Taum Sauk after learning that Ameren readjusted crucial safety gauges at the facility and removed the gauges after the basin collapsed.