Top Republicans will be called as witness in Greer case

The lawyer for former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer is vowing to put some of the state’s most prominent party officials on the stand in his client’s ongoing criminal case, and at least one of them says that’s not a problem.

Authorities charged Greer with stealing from the party by, among other things, setting up a secret company that he used to funnel money. But Greer’s lawyer J. Cheney Mason says Gov. Charlie Crist, who appointed Greer before changing parties to run for the U.S. Senate, knew about the company and approved its business dealings. In the Orlando Sentinel, Mason says he’ll depose Crist, Attorney General (and Republican governor candidate) Bill McCollum and current party chairman John Thrasher, among others. Greer, Mason says, is a victim of conservatives who are out to embarrass Crist.

McCollum tells Tampa Bay’s Channel Ten, that he’s fine with being deposed. McCollum said there is no conspiracy, and he’s not worried how appearing in the criminal case will affect him. “I don’t believe there’s any political perception wrong about being a witness,” the station quotes him as saying.