This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
House investigators issued three more subpoenas Tuesday — one each to Jeremy Johnson, Tim Lawson and a payday-loan chain — all key players in the saga involving Utah Attorney General John Swallow and his predecessor, Mark Shurtleff.
Johnson, founder of the defunct I Works, spawned a series of investigations in January when he told The Salt Lake Tribune that Swallow arranged a deal to help the St. George businessman, who was under federal investigation.
At the time, Johnson said he had made a $250,000 payment to Swallow's former boss, Richard Rawle, founder of the Provo-based Check City payday-loan chain, which Johnson alleged was intended to bribe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Swallow and Rawle, who has since died, said the money was to hire lobbyists to help Johnson with the Federal Trade Commission investigation he was facing.
Swallow and Reid have denied wrongdoing.
The House investigators are looking for any financial transactions between Johnson and Swallow, communication between the two, trips paid for by Johnson, and Johnson's communication about processing online-poker payments.
Johnson and online-poker interests asked Swallow and Shurtleff to sign off on the legality of processing payments in 2010, but they declined.
A subpoena also went to Tosh Inc., the parent company for Check City, for documents relating to Swallow, Reid, Johnson and payday-loan lobbyists, among others.
The final new subpoena orders Lawson, a longtime friend of Shurtleff, to provide records about fundraising activities with Swallow, trips taken with the attorney general and any documents relating to Marc Sessions Jenson, an imprisoned businessman who said he hired Lawson to help him out of criminal charges filed by the attorney general's office.
Lawson, sometimes dubbed Shurtleff's "fixer," worked with Swallow on the former GOP attorney general's campaign.
The three subpoenas bring the total issued by the House investigative committee to 15. Last week, the bipartisan panel issued nine subpoenas, most of them focused on unraveling Swallow's campaign money trail.
Softwise, a company owned by Rawle's son, has not complied with the House directive and has asked a judge to quash the order, saying the House is overstepping its legislative authority and is on a "fishing expedition."
The House committee, comprising five Republicans and four Democrats, is investigating a series of allegations against Swallow in a probe that could lay the groundwork for impeachment proceedings against the first-year Republican attorney general.
Twitter: @RobertGehrke