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Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesBRADY RESIGNS AS ATTORNEY GENERAL

BRADY RESIGNS AS ATTORNEY GENERAL

Attorney General Julio Brady resigned Friday in protest over his wife's firing as director of insurance and banking.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull accepted Brady's resignation "effective immediately" and appointed former Sen. Iver Stridiron to the post.
Turnbull named Alva A. Swan acting attorney general until Stridiron assumes the post early next month.
The governor also formally nominated Dr. WilbUr K. Callender as Health commissioner and Ira M. Hobson as Housing, Parks and Recreation commissioner.
In a flurry of press releases Friday, Brady was the first to announce his resignation, according to Saturday's Daily News. In his release Brady said that he'd originally resigned as of Monday but that Turnbull had persuaded him to stay until Feb. 8.
Brady's release, which blasted the "discharge practices of the Turnbull-James administration," apparently prompted Government House to issue its own release a few hours later saying Brady's resignation had been accepted "effective immediately."
Brady criticized the new administration for failing to consult or debrief career professionals before their departures, according to both the Daily News and Independent.
"My wife was given a termination letter signed by the governor at the end of the day on Friday, Jan. 15, by Lt. Gov. (Gerard Luz) James, who never met with her during the transition or after the inauguration," Brady's release said.
Noting his wife did an excellent job and was "apolitical and never engaged in partisan politics," Brady said James never met with her except to fire her.
Brady called James a "political hack," according to the Daily News, and wrote, "Such crude, low-root politics no doubt will be his trademark as lieutenant governor."
Addressing Turnbull, Brady said, "More importantly, this decision and other similar ones you are making at the inception of your administration suggest that you are practicing the same evils of 'arrogance, selfishness and insensitivity' you so vehemently condemned in your quest for Government House. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then hypocrisy is the vilest vice of those who profess righteousness."
James told the Daily News, "In the political arena, anything goes. I do not lower myself to making derogatory remarks about anyone. It's not in good taste."
The St. Thomas Source reported earlier this week that Turnbull had chosen former Sen. Iver Stridiron as attorney general.

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