Matt Shea investigator could be hired this week

OLYMPIA – The top administrator of the state House of Representatives expects to hire a private investigator by the end of the week to look into questions about Rep. Matt Shea’s participation in an online chat with people who advocated violence against political opponents.

“We are in the final stages of negotiating a contract with a firm,” House Chief Clerk Bernard Dean said Tuesday. “We have looked at a variety of potential investigators. We want to get the right person to do the work.”

Part of the delay is a result of the unusual nature of the investigation; the House usually only hires investigators to look into personnel or human resource situations, Dean said.

The investigation was ordered some two months ago by the House Executive Committee, a five-member body that sets some administrative policies for the chamber. The committee consists of the House speaker and the top leaders from the majority and minority caucuses, which means it has three Democrats and two Republicans.

After the 2019 legislative session concluded, House Democrats called for an independent investigation of reports that Shea, a six-term Spokane Valley Republican, had participated in an online chat in 2017 with people who suggested confronting adversaries on the left at their home or work, slamming a person’s face into a traffic barrier, shaving that person’s head with a combat knife or “hoisting communists up flagpoles.”

Based on transcripts of the online “chat,” there’s no indication Shea advocated violence himself, although at one point he did offer to do background checks on political opponents.

After the chats surfaced in the Guardian, House Republicans announced they would conduct an investigation but were still working on an “investigation protocol” when House Democrats called for an independent investigation, as well as a public reprimand and removing Shea from his position as the ranking Republican on the House Environment and Energy Committee.

Dean said the Executive Committee still hopes to get an initial report from the investigator by the end of September, and a final report by the end of the year, before the 2020 session starts.