Attorney General Gordon Rhea has formally concluded that Brett “Mac” McClafferty is ineligible to serve in the Virgin Islands Legislature, issuing a legal opinion Monday that lays out what the Department of Justice describes as a lengthy Ohio criminal record involving felony convictions, fraud-related offenses, and crimes involving moral turpitude.
The opinion, addressed to Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes, was requested after McClafferty picked up nomination papers in April to run for the Legislature. In the seven-page memorandum, DOJ attorneys concluded that Section 6(b) of the Revised Organic Act bars McClafferty from legislative office because he has been convicted of felonies and has not received a pardon restoring his civil rights.
The opinion arrives as McClafferty has publicly shifted his political focus toward the territory’s Delegate to Congress race — a move that raises a separate legal question because the federal qualifications governing the Delegate seat differ from the Revised Organic Act provisions governing the Legislature.
According to the DOJ opinion and attached court exhibits, attorneys identified convictions across multiple Ohio counties between 2015 and 2019, including offenses involving passing bad checks, theft, forgery, identity fraud, cocaine possession, and grand theft.
One exhibit includes a 2016 Geauga County conviction for fourth-degree felony passing bad checks. Another details a Portage County jury conviction involving forgery and theft offenses. Additional Summit County records show guilty pleas tied to felony cocaine possession and grand theft charges. The opinion repeatedly points to offenses involving fraud or deception.
“The offenses of Passing Bad Checks, Forgery, and Identity Fraud all include an intent to defraud as an element of the offense,” the opinion states, later adding that theft offenses involving deception also likely qualify as crimes of moral turpitude under Virgin Islands law.
To support that conclusion, DOJ attorneys cite prior Virgin Islands case law defining crimes of moral turpitude broadly to include crimes where fraud is either explicit or implicit in the nature of the offense.
The opinion also directly rejects arguments reportedly advanced by McClafferty’s attorney earlier this spring.
According to the DOJ memorandum, McClafferty’s attorney argued that some convictions had been reversed on appeal, that Ohio convictions should not count toward Virgin Islands eligibility standards, and that Ohio law restored his civil rights after completion of sentence.
The opinion rejects those arguments.
The opinion notes that appellate rulings attached to the filing dealt largely with sentencing disputes and jail-time credit calculations — not reversals of the underlying convictions themselves. The Attorney General’s Office also rejected the argument that only convictions handed down in Virgin Islands courts should count toward disqualification under Section 6(b).
“There is no reason to believe that Congress intended to permit felons and those otherwise convicted of crimes of moral turpitude to serve in the Virgin Islands Legislature so long as those convictions arose from criminal conduct in other parts of the United States,” the opinion states.
DOJ attorneys further argued that while Ohio may restore certain civil rights to former offenders after completion of sentence, the Revised Organic Act specifically requires a pardon restoring civil rights before someone convicted of felonies or crimes of moral turpitude can serve in the Legislature.
“McClafferty does not have a pardon,” the opinion states.
The legal opinion adds another layer to the scrutiny already surrounding McClafferty, who was arrested earlier this year by the VIPD Economic Crimes Unit in connection with what authorities described as an $888,500 fraud investigation involving counterfeit checks, fictitious bank drafts, and disputed financial transactions. McClafferty has denied wrongdoing in that case, which remains pending.
The Attorney General’s opinion itself does not remove McClafferty from a ballot or constitute a court ruling.
The opinion was released the same day McClafferty filed an emergency motion in Superior Court seeking permission to travel to St. Croix to meet with a prospective landlord for what court filings described as a possible campaign headquarters tied to his run for Delegate to Congress. In separate filings, McClafferty has also asked the court to modify the conditions of his release in the pending fraud case so he can travel more freely between districts while campaigning.
Court records show McClafferty is currently prohibited from leaving the St. Thomas-St. John District without permission because of the conditions tied to his pending criminal case.
As of Monday evening, however, McClafferty had not officially filed nomination papers for Delegate to Congress. Tuesday is the final day for candidates to file for the 2026 election cycle.
