House Ethics panel clears Haley again - Live5News.com | Charleston, SC | News, Weather, Sports

It took the House Ethics Committee nearly 2 hours to decide Gov. Nikki Haley's fate, but in the end, they voted to dismiss the seven allegations.

Haley took the stand Thursday night to defend herself from the 7 allegations against her.

Haley says she never lobbied during her time as a state representative and never accepted lobbyist dollars in exchange for votes.

Republican activist John Rainey filed the complaint with the committee asking for an investigation into Haley's conduct. It appears Rainey and Haley were once political allies, but after a meeting between the pair during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Haley says it all changed.

"With all due respect to the members of the committee and everyone in this room, Mr. Rainey is a racist, sexist, bigot who has tried everything in his power to hurt me and my family," Haley told the panel.

"He came in and was demeaning and he was demanding and basically said that he wanted me to prove certain things so that if I took the oath, they wouldn't find out later that my family was related to terrorists."

After that, Haley says Rainey set out on a mission against her. The complaint, Haley says, is just the latest example.

"He had plenty of allegations, but he had no facts," said Haley's attorney Butch Bowers.

Bowers called Rainey's complaint a political witch hunt.

"It's confirmed what we have said all along that the governor didn't do anything wrong," Bowers said.

The committee threw the case out after 12 hours of testimony.

After the ruling, Rainey released a statement lambasting the committee and saying that they harbor "a culture of corruption enshrouded in a conspiracy of silence."

The South Carolina Democratic Party also took a shot at the committee by sending them a letter and a picture of swimming shorts. In the letter, Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian says, "The Democratic Party wants to ensure that the next time you take a dive, that you have the proper attire."

The ethics case is over, but members of the committee said the case proves there are too many loopholes in the state's ethics laws.

Lawmakers say they're working on clarifying those laws and taking the temptation of interpretation out of legislators' hands.

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