WBTV: “The Wake County District Attorney’s office pursued a criminal investigation into North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein despite a recommendation that the case be closed, according to a memo obtained by WBTV.
The memo, written by a North Carolina State Board of Elections attorney, is the latest revelation in an unprecedented case involving the sitting attorney general over a 2020 campaign ad.
Though the agency determined the ad was not a “clear violation” of the law, the DA’s office, led by Democrat Lorrin Freeman, took the extraordinary step of investigating and ultimately pursuing an indictment against the state’s sitting attorney general anyway.
Freeman’s office was minutes from asking a grand jury to bring criminal charges against Stein when a federal judge blocked her from doing so last month, WBTV previously reported….
Stein’s Republican opponent for attorney general in 2020, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill, filed a complaint with the NCSBE in October 2020 alleging Stein had violated the law by running a campaign ad that claimed O’Neill had failed to test 1,500 rape kits.
…Attorneys for Stein have asked a federal judge to continue blocking Freeman’s office from bringing Stein’s case to a grand jury while they appeal her ruling allowing the prosecution to move forward.”