Utah prosecutors charged a former attorney general candidate with bribery Wednesday and accused him of offering a job to a political opponent in exchange for the candidate’s endorsement.
Frank Mylar was accused of election bribery for soliciting the endorsement of fellow Republican Trent Christensen in exchange for a job in his office if he were elected.
A detective in Murray said in a court filing Tuesday that Christensen told the local police department in May that Mylar had sent him a text message asking for his endorsement before the state’s Republican nominating convention on April 27.
Mylar reportedly said in the text message that his campaign had “gained more momentum” before urging Christensen to support him.
“If you could support me before the convention, I would definitely include you in my office. Think about it for a few days,” Mylar wrote, according to prosecutors.
Christensen did not respond to the text message, and on the same day, Mylar sent a follow-up message asking him to disregard his previous message, saying he had no intention of sending it and that “It’s not an offer, etc.,” according to with court documents.
Mylar’s attorneys — Nathan A. Crane and Rick Van Wagoner — said their client denied the allegations and would not plead guilty.
“Frank vehemently denies the allegations made against him. Frank did not bribe or attempt to engage anyone. Frank was simply seeking support for his campaign,” they said in a statement. “Shortly after sending the text message, Frank contacted the recipient to ensure his original text was not misinterpreted.”
In an interview, Christensen said the text message “speaks for itself” and that he would not have acted differently if the outcome of the convention and primary had been different.
“When I ran my campaign, it was based on trust and accountability, like I think Utah needs an attorney general who is more focused on trust and accountability to the public, and that means accountability on all sides,” Christensen said. . that the system will do its job correctly and that there will be justice.”
Christensen did not advance to the June 25 primary after being eliminated at the April nominating convention. Mylar was defeated in a three-way primary by Derek Brown, who won 43.59% of the vote.
Rudy Bautista is the Democratic candidate for the November elections.
State Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican, dropped his bid for re-election in December.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
