Chief investigator questioned in auditor corruption trial

DOVER, Del. (AP) — The chief investigator in the corruption case against Delaware State Auditor Kathy McGuiness tried under cross-examination to deflect responsibility for false statements made in a search warrant affidavit and reiterated in an indictment.

Franklin Robinson told a judge in a search warrant affidavit last year that payments to a consultant hired by McGuiness were split in August 2020, and again in September 2020, to keep them under $5,000. That’s the threshold at which payments by state agencies require approval from the Division of Accounting.

The affidavit contained those statements even though Robinson and prosecutors had seen a Division of Accounting spreadsheet months earlier indicating that the contractor received only one payment each month, both above $5,000.

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