JEFFERSON CITY - In a stunning act of political protectionism, trial attorney and State Auditor Susan Montee today used an audit to shield Jay Nixon and his trial attorney contributors from blame in the impending insolvency of the Second Injury Fund overseen by Nixon.

Instead of examining Nixon’s role in overseeing the Second Injury Fund tapped by trial attorneys who have contributed thousands of dollars to his campaign, Montee attempts to shift the blame for the insolvency expected in 2008 on other factors including recently enacted worker’s compensation reform.

Nixon’s free pass audit issued by Montee cannot ignore the fact that as a candidate for attorney general in 1992, Nixon pledged to reform the Second Injury Fund. Instead of reform, state records show that expenditures for the fund have jumped from $20 million in 1994 to $68 million last year.

“Susan Montee has engaged in a political whitewash that completely and utterly ignores Jay Nixon’s mismanagement of the Second Injury Fund which he has used to keep his trial attorney contributors fat and happy while forcing the fund into imminent insolvency,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “As a trial attorney and a loyal Democrat, Susan Montee has clearly turned a blind eye to the real culprits behind the impending collapse of the Second Injury Fund – Jay Nixon and her fellow trial attorneys.”