Truth Alert: Fact-checking new anti-Josh Hawley ad

You may have noticed more political ads on starting on television these days.

Although the general election is more than five months away, the commercials are designed to shape early opinion.

We are putting the ads to a Truth Alert to sort out the reality from the spin.

The commercial under review is an anti-Josh Hawley ad paid for by the Senate Majority PAC, a group that seeks to make Democrats the majority party in the U.S. Senate.

The commercials begins with: “A governor under fire. A capital awash in corruption: in the middle, Attorney General Josh Hawley.”

Gov. Eric Greitens is certainly under fire. He is in the fight for his political life as he faces discipline from lawmakers up to and including impeachment. Many lawmakers – both Republicans and Democrats – would take exception to the claim that the Capitol is “awash in corruption” and the attorney general would certainly argue he’s not in the middle. He has definitely become a part of it as part of his job as the state’s chief law enforcement officer.

The commercial continues: “After taking $50,000 from Greitens, Hawley took a hands-off approach and dragged his feet on investigating the governor for 12 months.”

As ABC 17 News has reported to you in another Truth Alert check, Josh Hawley did accept around $50,000 of in kind contributions from the Greitens from Missouri organization.

Hawley has been in the unenviable position of having to investigate his fellow Republican, but with the Confide app story being revealed in December and the affair and surrounding accusations breaking in January, we were unable to find any substance behind the claim that Hawley “dragged his feet for 12 months” before investigating the governor.

The commercial continues: “Hawley’s investigation was widely mocked and called substandard. Prosecutors said Hawley appeared to be protecting the governor instead of us.”

Hawley’s investigation did have many critics, but although the use of the Confide app is super-shady for a public servant, the disappearing nature of the app certainly complicated the investigation. It’s similar to the alleged blackmail photograph that prosecutors could never produce. Hawley did say if he got subpoena power regarding Sunshine Laws he would re-open the investigation.

The ad ends: “Josh Hawley, a politician we can’t trust. SMP is responsible for the content of this ad.”

Once again, whether or not Hawley is a politician you can trust is a decision for you to make at the voting booth.