The old saying goes 'Where there's smoke, there's fire.' Well…if there is a fire in the Cantrell Administration, wouldn't a federal or state investigation sniff it out? WWL approached political analyst and lawyer Clancy DuBos about why a high-level investigation isn't underway:
"There's plenty of smoke there to suggest that there's some fire," DuBos says. "There's already questions about potential payroll fraud involving Officer Vappie, misuse of public funds for political purposes…"
But DuBos also says any federal level investigation would have to start in Washington and we may not be privy to it.
"The feds proceed slowly and methodically, and they truthfully cannot take it to a certain level against an elected official without clearance from Washington," DuBos explains. "To avoid any appearance of a political nature of an investigation."
IF an investigation is started by a federal agency, DuBos says we're not going to be told right off the bat.
"The feds also proceed quietly. Generally, very few people know that a federal investigation is underway until people start getting called in front of a grand jury," DuBos says. "But, they could be investigating right now. They could at least be looking at it and we wouldn't know."
In a 24-news cycle, DuBos says hungry consumers of news just have to be patient when it comes to wanting the latest news about investigations.
"It's not appropriate for the feds to put out news releases when they investigate somebody because there may be nothing there. When word gets out that someone is under federal investigation, we'll get all excited and start jumping to conclusions.
So, DuBos explains, patience is the name of the game.
"If there is an investigation going on, either at the state or federal level, it's not a given the public would know about it. Because those things have to proceed carefully, methodically, quietly and that means slowly—people just have to be patient."