Just months before voters cast their ballots in the 2026 U.S. Senate election, North Carolina’s Republican-led General Assembly announced a committee to investigate the Democratic nominee, former Gov. Roy Cooper.
The joint legislative panel, made up of 10 Republicans and four Democrats, will take aim at a 2021 court-ordered settlement between the Cooper administration and civil rights groups that released roughly 3,500 prisoners due to dangers from the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision inaccurately ascribed to Cooper by a Monday press release from Republican legislative leaders.
The Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Prisons will be chaired by Sen. Buck Newton (R-Wilson) and Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus).
The committee’s mandate mirrors a frequent line of attack by Republican U.S. Senate nominee Michael Whatley, who has repeatedly blamed Cooper for the releases and crime across the state at large. It will also review the state’s prison system and other criminal justice issues.
North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) presides over session on June 25, 2025. (Photo by Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) said in a statement that the releases were a “serious miscarriage of justice” and endangered public safety.
“This committee will investigate exactly how these early release decisions were made, who was responsible, and whether proper safeguards were followed,” Hall said.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) blamed Cooper for not properly informing the public about the releases. “He made every effort to hide what he did, and Republicans in the General Assembly are going to hold him and Gov. Stein accountable for releasing violent, repeat offenders and endangering our citizens.”
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The speaker’s office characterized the list of inmates as a “secret” kept from the public by the governor’s office. Those names were in fact withheld from the public because a judge ordered the settlement list to remain sealed, which it was until the legislature’s Government Operations committee obtained and released it earlier this year.
Jordan Monaghan, a spokesman for the Cooper campaign, said in a statement that the committee’s inquiry is based on “blatant lies,” noting that the former governor “fought against these releases in court.”
“North Carolina law enforcement officials and parole officers looked to similar criteria President Trump used a year prior when his administration released thousands of federal prisoners due to COVID-19,” Monaghan said. “North Carolina Republican leaders were regularly briefed on this process over five years ago, only now raising this issue in the middle of a political campaign.”
Meredith College pollster Professor David McLennan (Courtesy photo)David McLennan, a professor of political science at Meredith College, said he cannot recall the General Assembly probing a U.S. Senate candidate months before the election, nor a former governor five years after the alleged misconduct.
“It seems just overtly political,” McLennan said. “The initial response I had was this was an attempt to paint Cooper in a very poor light in terms of crime.”
Republicans have sought to tie Cooper to the fatal Charlotte stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska. Lawmakers have repeatedly alleged that DeCarlos Brown Jr., the man charged with her murder, was released by Cooper’s order. In fact, Brown was already out of prison on post-release supervision at the time of the order after having served his full sentence, according to PolitiFact.
In the settlement requiring the release of thousands of inmates from state prisons, the state sought to lower the number of prisoners it would have to release by retroactively counting some that had already been released since the pandemic began. Plaintiffs and the judge agreed to allow that. Brown was part of that group.
Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley speaks with reporters in Rocky Mount ahead of a Trump rally on Dec. 19, 2025. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)The committee begins its work as Cooper leads his Republican opponent Whatley by double digits in some polls, with many voters still knowing little about the latter candidate. Whatley has faced his own scrutiny on criminal justice issues, including his role appointing a convicted sex offender to help draft the party’s rules during his time as state GOP chair, drawing backlash from some conservative activists.
McLennan said he expects the proceedings to resemble high-profile congressional hearings, centering more around drawing headlines than finding facts, with Republican lawmakers potentially seeking to call Cooper and other top officials to testify. “In the end, I suspect there will probably be a report issued, late summer, probably just in time for the fall campaign season, that will be very critical of the governor,” he said.
“Crime is one of the issues that Democrats are most vulnerable on, just historically,” McLennan said. “I think they’ll paint a very compelling story. Now, whether or not voters of North Carolina will see through it in terms of it being just a political committee, I don’t know.”
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