SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 has learned who FBI agents served a third search warrant on and former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is firing back.
Shurtleff said the FBI and the Department of Public Safety, owes his daughter an apology. This after agents searched his home and John Swallow’s, last night.
“Law enforcement showed up in masks, 12 officers with bullet proof vests, assault rifles, burst through the door screaming and yelling at my kids,” Shurtleff said in an interview with Fox 13 out of Washington D.C.
Utah’s former top law enforcement officer said the FBI and Department of Public Safety pointed guns at his 16-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son.
The warrants are connected to a joint criminal investigation by the Salt Lake and Davis county attorneys. Former AG John Swallow’s home was also the subject of a search.
“It’s outrageous conduct and if they’ll do it to me, they’ll do it to anybody,” Shurtleff said, who claims Monday night’s raid was all part of a show-and-tell, orchestrated by Gill.
“They in fact called the media to have them there to have them part of their circus, grandstanding. I haven’t talked — I’ve been offering to go in and talk to Sim Gill for a year,” Shurtleff said.
The former Attorney General demands an apology, but in a statement, DPS defended its actions, saying it followed proper procedure and it was lawful and legal.
A third search warrant was served Monday night at the home of ex-Swallow campaign staffer Renae Cowley. Her lawyer tells FOX 13 she’s been granted immunity in exchange for her cooperation with prosecutors.
“We are in a very fruitful phase of our investigation and we continue to work all those leads, hopefully to a conclusion very quickly,” Gill said.
He won’t say when or if, charges will be coming against Swallow or Shurtleff.
“We will make those decisions when the time is appropriate,” Gill said.
Meantime, Shurtleff wants an answer as to why the district attorney won’t talk to him about an investigation he is the target of.
“Either he doesn’t know, and isn’t an experienced prosecutor but I know he is or there’s some other motive. The Democratic Party sent out a democratic press release praising their Democratic Party prosecutor. I’m not saying, I’m asking Sim Gill and Troy Rawlings to be professional,” Shurtleff said.
Shurtleff believes this investigation ultimately ends with his innocence. He thinks he won’t be charged with any crime, and says the Salt Lake and Davis County probe will end the same way as the Justice Department’s, which was no charges.
