Columbia, S.C. — Attorney General candidate David Pascoe joined Representative Joe White this morning in the State House lobby to announce legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal violations of South Carolina’s lobbying laws.

The legislation, H. 5247  , repeals Section 2-17-150 of the South Carolina Code, which currently imposes a four-year statute of limitations on prosecuting illegal lobbying violations.

Pascoe said the bill directly responds to findings from the 2018 State Grand Jury corruption report, which identified serious weaknesses in South Carolina’s ethics and lobbying laws and specifically recommended eliminating the statute of limitations for criminal lobbying violations.

“In South Carolina, illegal lobbying is the only crime on the books with a statute of limitations,” Pascoe said. “For over thirty years since the enactment of our ethics laws, violators have been treated as a special class. The State Grand Jury concluded that this four-year limit stood as an impediment to enforcement and should be eliminated. That recommendation has sat ignored. Today, that changes.”

Representative White, the bill’s primary sponsor, said the measure is about restoring public trust.

“No one should receive special protection under our criminal laws,” White said. “If a lobbyist attempts to unlawfully influence legislation, the passage of time should not be a shield. H. 5247 ensures illegal lobbying is treated like every other serious offense in South Carolina. The public deserves accountability, not loopholes.”

“The 2018 State Grand Jury made it clear that the four-year statute of limitations on illegal lobbying weakens enforcement and protects the well-connected. That should concern every citizen in South Carolina. H. 5247 simply follows through on what the Grand Jury recommended years ago — remove the artificial deadline and let law enforcement do its job. If someone breaks the law to influence legislation, they should never be able to run out the clock and walk away.”

Pascoe referenced delays encountered during the corruption probe, including procedural inaction and discovery delays that prevented prosecutions before the statute of limitations expired.

“When enforcement is stalled long enough for the clock to run out, justice is denied,” Pascoe said. “Illegal lobbying should be treated like every other serious crime in our code. If this bill passes, there will be no statute of limitations. Period.”

Pascoe also pointed to a recent incident on the Senate floor in which a freshman senator publicly alleged he had been offered between $50,000 and $100,000 by a lobbyist group to vote against tort reform. The Senate adjourned shortly after the allegation and resumed business later without a public investigation.

“In any healthy system, an allegation of that magnitude would trigger immediate inquiry,” Pascoe said. “Instead, the instinct was containment. That moment is exactly why we must remove structural barriers that protect misconduct.”

H. 5247 was introduced in the House on February 24 and has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee  .

Pascoe thanked White, the Freedom Caucus, and co-sponsors for what he called “a willingness to stand up to special interests and strengthen our ethics laws.”

“The culture of corruption in Columbia did not grow overnight,” Pascoe said. “It will not end overnight. But it will end when we stop writing special protections for insiders and start enforcing the law evenly.”

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