The U.S. Attorney for Iowa’s Southern District says he won’t back away from the prosecution of a Des Moines lawmaker who is accused of extortion of his former business partners. Lawyers for Democrat representative Matt McCoy asked that charges be thrown out because of misconduct by those prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Matt Whittaker says that won’t happen.Whittaker says his office will respond in an appropriate manner based on the facts and circumstances and he fully stands behind his prosecutors. Whittaker says he thinks the motion is without merit and the court will ultimately decide. Whittaker says they will prosecute the case based on the facts.
Whittaker says they don’t bring cases based on "political persuasion or otherwise", and will go where the facts are. A grand jury in March found that McCoy threatened two former business partners who later gave him roughly two-thousand dollars.