RALEIGH, N.C. — Jason Saine, the former top budget writer in the North Carolina House who now works as a lobbyist, says he expects to be indicted Thursday by a Wake County grand jury in the long-running case over a 2024 trip lawmakers took to Kentucky distilleries.
In a statement late Wednesday, Saine denied breaking any law. He said the charge accuses him of aiding and abetting a crime committed by someone else, which he says he did not do. He said the nonprofit tied to the trip had an independent board that decided how to raise and spend its money and that he had no part in those decisions.
Prosecutors say lobbyists steered companies they represented to sponsor or give money to Greater Carolina, a nonprofit social welfare group, knowing the money would cover invitation-only Kentucky Bourbon Trail outings for state legislators. One April indictment alleged spirits industry money paid for a lunch, a barrel pick and a reception at a distillery.
Four well-known lobbyists were charged in April with a misdemeanor count of soliciting violations of the state ban on gifts from lobbyists and the businesses that hire them. Prosecutors agreed in September to dismiss the cases against three of them after they met the terms of deferral agreements, and the fourth case is still open.
Under North Carolina law, lobbyists and their clients generally cannot give lawmakers gifts, though legislators carved out gray areas for events, travel and large groups when no corrupt intent is shown. That leeway could make prosecution harder. Groups like Greater Carolina, organized as 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofits, may lobby on legislation but cannot make political campaigns their main purpose.
Saine, a Lincoln County Republican, served in the House from 2011 until he resigned in August 2024 and was its chief budget writer at the time of the trip. He joined a lobbying firm that November and in May 2026 opened his own government relations firm, which lists more than two dozen clients with the Secretary of State.
Section: More Raleigh NC politics news
Filed under: Raleigh NC Politics News
