A Breitbart News report published Monday chronicles a series of controversies from Democrat Roy Cooper’s two terms as North Carolina governor, framing them as a “culture of corruption in plain sight” just as his U.S. Senate campaign enters its final stretch against Republican Michael Whatley.
The report arrived as Republican-aligned groups outspent Democrats for the first time this cycle, according to Breitbart, a shift that comes as polling suggests the contest has narrowed.
The Pipeline Permit and the $57.8 Million Fund
Central to the allegations is Cooper’s handling of a permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. According to Breitbart, investigators testified under oath that Cooper used the power of his office to pressure energy companies into creating a $57.8 million fund as his administration held up the project’s environmental permit. The report characterized the arrangement as “an abuse of power” and said Cooper’s top aides rewrote an agreement to give the governor control over the money rather than the state of North Carolina.
A Duke Energy lobbyist, per reporting from Carolina Journal cited in the Breitbart piece, said Cooper’s senior policy adviser Ken Eudy was not truthful in statements to a legislative committee investigating the administration’s role. Investigators concluded it was reasonable to infer that Cooper used his office to pressure pipeline developers into establishing the fund as a condition for a permit, and further concluded that “the information suggests that criminal violations may have occurred.”
The report also ties the pipeline fight to solar farm property owned by Cooper and his family, saying that by industry standards, the arrangement could have benefited Cooper by more than $1 million. Text messages, emails, and memos included in a 19,216-page document release from the governor’s office are said to document the decision to use the permit as leverage to force Duke Energy into a deal with the state’s solar industry. Cooper and senior officials maintained the pipeline negotiations and Duke’s solar deals were separate matters; WTBV reported that the released communications show otherwise.
Donor Appointments and a Billion-Dollar Fine
Breitbart further alleges that Cooper used the governor’s office to reward family members and friends of a major political donor and dark-money operative with powerful appointments. The New York Post reported that the same donor was tied to a group that raised money by selling access to Cooper and his administration, according to the Breitbart account.
Separately, the report links Cooper to a green energy company facing a record $1.1 billion fine that federal regulators described as a “scam for the history books” earlier this year. NC Tribune reported in April that the family behind the company, American Efficient, had donated at least $886,526 to North Carolina Democrats, including $72,850 to Cooper. That family includes a sitting state senator and a prominent donor Cooper appointed to a major state housing board, the report said.
The Breitbart piece points to Cooper’s clean energy executive orders — including the NC Clean Energy Plan, a “Clean Energy and Equitable Economy” initiative featuring net-zero carbon goals, and a commitment to zero-emission transportation — as policies that served companies like American Efficient.
SBI Director: ‘It Was Clear Intimidation’
The report also revisits testimony from Bob Schurmeier, then director of the State Bureau of Investigation, who told a legislative committee in March 2023 that members of the governor’s office held multiple sensitive meetings about SBI confidential matters with Department of Public Safety secretaries, including Erik Hooks and Eddie Buffaloe, and that he believed the purpose was to “intimidate” him, according to the North State Journal.
Schurmeier said that on two occasions, Cooper’s chief of staff, Kristie Jones, and general counsel Eric Fletcher asked for his resignation and threatened him with investigations into racial discrimination — accusations he strongly denied. He described meetings between October and December 2022, while he was recovering from surgery, in which he was asked to resign or face investigation. By December, he said, he was asked whether he wanted a second term, which left him flabbergasted; when he said he did not, he was asked to put that in writing. Asked how he interpreted the meetings, Schurmeier replied: “It was clear intimidation.”
He also said he was blocked from hiring his preferred candidates for top agency positions, including deputy director and general counsel, instead being forced to hire a former lieutenant of Cooper’s from his time as attorney general — a move Schurmeier said shifted more control to the governor’s office.
The Breitbart report also references a former Republican National Committee chairman’s claim that Cooper is “the worst governor in the history of North Carolina.”
With the race tightening and outside spending shifting in Republicans’ favor, the Cooper-Whatley contest is likely to remain dominated by characterizations of the former governor’s record — a record his critics are now working to define for voters before November.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/28/inside-democrat-roy-coopers-culture-of-corruption-as-governor/