Richard Quinn, legendary SC GOP consultant, pleads guilty to perjury and obstruction

Richard Quinn Sr., a legendary Republican consultant who for years was the mastermind behind a far-reaching web of influence in the S.C. State House, pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of perjury and two counts of obstruction of justice.

The plea, accepted by state Judge Carmen Mullen, is what’s known as an Alford plea, where a defendant asserts their innocence but acknowledges that the government had enough evidence to likely win a guilty verdict if the case was brought to trial.

Under the plea deal, Quinn will serve concurrent sentences on all charges that will keep him under home detention for 18 months. After those 18 months, he will be on probation for two years.

An Alford plea “goes down exactly like a guilty plea,” Mullen told Quinn Wednesday. “It will be convictions on your record. Do you understand that?”

Quinn, 78, said he did.

Quinn is a longtime political consultant whose empire of influence, dubbed “the Quinndom,” extended across South Carolina’s business and political worlds.

He was indicted by a state grand jury in May 2021 under Special Prosecutor Barry Barnette’s supervision on 12 counts of perjury and two counts of obstruction of justice. Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office assigned the case to Barnette to avoid any conflict of interest because Wilson had a long political relationship with Quinn.

Quinn is now “semi-retired,” he told the judge Wednesday.

The charges against Quinn included making false statements before a grand jury about his relations with former lawmakers, some of whom he made secret payments to, and Wilson, whom Quinn served as a politician consultant.

The plea was the result of negotiations between Barnette and his assistant solicitor, Jennifer Jordan, and Quinn’s team of lawyers, which included Shaun Kent, Cindy Crick, Rauch Wise and Josh Kendrick. Barnette, the 7th Judicial Circuit solicitor, is based in Spartanburg.

“If we had gone to trial, we would have proved the allegations in this case,” Barnette told Mullen. “I think this is a just decision in this case.”

Since 2017, Quinn has been a target in a wide-ranging state grand jury corruption investigations that has resulted in convictions of several major now-former Republican state lawmakers who received secret payments from Quinn’s firm.

One of them, former House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Richland, was convicted after a 2018 jury trial and sent to prison. Evidence showed Harrison for years had secretly taken about $85,000 a year from Quinn’s firm, Richard Quinn & Associates.

Quinn’s declining health and wanting to spend more time with his five young grandchildren were major reasons for his plea, Crick told Mullen Wednesday. Another reason was to “achieve finality,” she said.

“He’s lost his business. He’s lost friends,” Crick said. “He’s almost 80. He just wants to be done with this.”

In a statement, Quinn’s attorney Kent said, “Today Richard Quinn Sr. agreed to a plea to finally bring an end what has been an extremely painful eight-year ordeal for him and his family. He strongly maintains his innocence and simply wants to put this chapter of life behind him so he can enjoy time with his grandchildren.”

Only months ago, in December 2022, Mullen presided over a two-hour hearing at the Richland County courthouse, where Quinn’s lawyer clashed with Barnette over whether to keep alive or dismiss the charges.

Mullen, at the end, said she would weigh the issues and make a ruling “sooner than later.”

Quinn was once a major political consultant for numerous high-profile Republican officeholders, including Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Wilson and Wilson’s father, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson. Quinn also represented the interests of major institutions, such as the University of South Carolina and the former SCANA electric utility.

Barnette inherited the Quinn case from former special prosecutor David Pascoe, who stepped down from the post in 2021 after years leading one of the most successful state investigations into General Assembly corruption.

As part of Pascoe’s investigation, he brought Quinn before a state grand jury in 2018, after having said publicly that if Quinn lied to grand jurors he would be prosecuted for perjury. When Quinn testified, he lied, according to Pascoe, who subsequently indicted Quinn for perjury.

When Barnette took over the case in 2021, he presented evidence about Quinn to a new state grand jury, which indicted Quinn on the new perjury charges. Those new charges were part of Wednesday’s negotiated plea agreement.

Quinn’s lawyers had argued that by prosecuting Quinn for perjury, Barnette was violating a 2017 agreement Pascoe reached with Quinn in which Pascoe promised not to prosecute Quinn if one of his firms pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to register as a lobbyist and paid a fine.

Barnette still has to bring to a conclusion state grand jury charges against former Rep. Tracy Edge, R-Myrtle Beach, and have a sentence rendered to former Sen. John Courson, R-Richland.

Courson resigned from office and pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of willful misconduct in office related to accepting Quinn’s money. He has not yet been sentenced.

This story may be updated.