Fugitive Republican Dead After Confrontation With FBI

The Washington Post reports:

Roy C. McGrath, a fugitive who had been a top aide to Larry Hogan when he was Maryland’s governor, died Monday as the result of a confrontation with the FBI in the area of Knoxville, Tenn., his lawyer said. He had been the subject of a 21-day manhunt launched after he failed to show up to federal court in Baltimore.

“The loss of Roy’s life is an absolute tragedy, and I think it’s important for me to say that Roy never wavered about his innocence,” Joseph Murtha said. Murtha said he wasn’t sure how McGrath was killed.  “I haven’t gotten any information on whether Roy died from gunfire from an agent or whether it was a self-inflicted wound.”

CBS News reports:

McGrath was set to be tried on federal charges stemming from his time running the Maryland Environmental Service, a quasi-governmental state agency that provides services like wastewater management, composting and recycling.

Prosecutors said McGrath fraudulently obtained a severance payment of $233,647 when he left to take the job as Hogan’s chief of staff in 2020, and falsified a document purporting to show the governor had approved of the payment.

He was also accused of falsifying time sheets while vacationing in Europe and stealing money for tuition for classes at Harvard.

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s one-time chief of staff Roy McGrath has died after a nationwide manhunt for him ended in a confrontation with the FBI in Knoxville, Tennesseehttps://t.co/xSZJATKB5p

— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2023