George Gascón won't be pursuing a criminal investigation in to the Rose Pak-backed Run, Ed, Run campaign, the appointed District Attorney said in a statement on Friday. Gascón had previously sent the case to his predecessor, Attorney General Kamala Harris to check out a possible conflict of interest after his opponents in the DA's race called for the District Attorney to recuse himself. After getting the go-ahead from Sacramento, Gascón's office told the press there was "insufficient evidence to proceed with any further investigation."
With their institutional memory, the Chronicle reminds us that Gascón only accepted the DA gig after calling up Willie Brown and Rose Pak to check his chances in the November election. Around that same time, Gascón told the press a run for office, " just wasn't something I was thinking about."
With the DA and the Attorney General seemingly OK with how the situation turned out (and the fact that Assistant DA Victor Hwang was a co-chair of the political comittee), the case might still get some traction with at the U.S. attorney's office. Several of the Chronicle's sources have told the paper they've been asked by the feds to turn over documents related to the Progress for All.
Meanwhile Aaron Peskin, conspiracy theorist and chair of the local Democratic Party, told SFWeekly the political maneuvering was just, "business as usual".
