After 1½-years of suspicion for election fraud, a Republican political activist finds his case referred to the state Ethics Commission.

Trey Walker will not be prosecuted by the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s office, a Nov. 10 letter from prosecutor Barney Giese indicates.

Walker, now spokesman for S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, would not comment on the ethics case. But he said he is relieved.

“This matter has been hanging over my family’s head for a year and a half and now I’m glad it’s finally over,’’ Walker said Monday night. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

Walker was working on McMaster’s campaign when he misrepresented the identity of the author of an e-mail that was critical of McMaster’s chief rival in the June 2002 GOP primary for attorney general.

Walker admitted he sent party loyalists a copy of a State newspaper article that said Charleston lawyer Larry Richter once accepted $50,000 in cash from a man later convicted of drug dealing.

Richter said Walker tearfully apologized to him and said he had “learned a lesson.”

But Richter, a former state senator and judge, said he still believes Walker was wrong.

“More people in politics should be willing to stand up to the political hacks and the twisters of the truth,” Richter said. “I saw wrong and I stood up against it.”

Walker acknowledged he made the e-mail appear to have come from Richter’s campaign manager, Rod Shealy. Walker dismissed it as a prank on Shealy, a longtime political associate.

Walker apologized and Shealy has dismissed the infraction.

Giese, whose office oversaw the SLED investigation of Walker and another Republican official, fought then-Attorney General Charlie Condon for control of the investigation.

The probe began in June 2002.

Giese argued to take the case to the state grand jury, which has powers county grand juries lack.

Giese then went to the state Supreme Court and won the right to remain the chief prosecutor. That was in February.

After 10 months, he issued his decision Monday. Giese would not agree to an interview.

But he cited his letter, which states that circumstances had changed:

• The other person under investigation — then-Richland County Councilman Buddy Meetze — said he acted alone when he excluded his own name from a political mailing critical of Richter. Meetze did not involve Walker in that incident.

• Meetze died in his sleep in December.

Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com.