{"id":53559,"date":"2020-06-04T19:17:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T01:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-held-in-contempt-by-ethics-commission-after-snubbing-subpoena\/"},"modified":"2020-06-05T01:17:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T01:17:09","slug":"hickenlooper-held-in-contempt-by-ethics-commission-after-snubbing-subpoena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-held-in-contempt-by-ethics-commission-after-snubbing-subpoena\/","title":{"rendered":"Hickenlooper held in contempt by ethics commission after snubbing subpoena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=23738b59-59a9-46e6-ab06-e4dbbdeb17d5&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Former Gov. John Hickenlooper was held in contempt Thursday after he failed to honor a subpoena to testify at an ethics hearing about whether he accepted improper gifts while in office and failed to disclose them.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Former Gov. John Hickenlooper was held in contempt Thursday after he failed to honor a subpoena to testify at an ethics hearing about whether he accepted improper gifts while in office and failed to disclose them.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">The Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>DENVER \u2013 Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper was held in contempt Thursday after he failed to honor a subpoena to testify at an ethics hearing about whether he accepted improper gifts while in office and failed to disclose them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/2020\/06\/04\/hickenlooper-contempt-ethics-commission\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The extraordinary move by the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission<\/a> came in the middle of a day-long trial about a series of flights Hickenlooper took on corporate jets and his attendance at the exclusive Bilderberg meetings in Italy in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy failing to honor the subpoena of the commission, the respondent has indicated a disrespect for the rule of law,\u201d said Commissioner Bill Leone, a former U.S. attorney.<\/p>\n<p>The commission voted unanimously to hold Hickenlooper in contempt but put a decision about sanctions against him on hold until Friday.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the commission issued a subpoena for Hickenlooper to appear at the video-conference hearing, and a Denver judge upheld the request in a ruling Wednesday that dismissed Hickenlooper\u2019s claims that the format would impinge on his due-process rights.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper, who is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, never showed. Instead, he filed an appeal minutes before the hearing began at 9 a.m. The commission directed Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser to seek enforcement of the subpoena but Hickenlooper again appealed the move.<\/p>\n<p>When it came time for Hickenlooper\u2019s testimony near 2 p.m., he remained absent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this time, we call John Hickenlooper,\u201d said Suzanne Staiert, the attorney for the Public Trust Institute, the conservative nonprofit behind the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper never answered. \u201cHe is not appearing. He is pursuing an appeal,\u201d replied Mark Grueskin, the state-funded attorney representing Hickenlooper.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Check the <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colorado Sun\u2019s websites<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>governor a no-show before a Denver District Court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,1228,13,481,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-ethics","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53559"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}