History, politics, people of Oly WA

Category: Smith Troy

Smith Troy, Trump and Telling the Truth

We’ve all heard President Donald Trump call the press “the enemy of the people.” Over the course of his terms, he repeatedly attacked news organizations as “fake,” “corrupt,” and even suggested some were engaged in illegal activity.

Beyond insults, he openly questioned the constitutional protections that shield journalists, including the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan precedent, and proposed “opening up our libel laws” so politicians could sue and “win lots of money.”

His rhetoric and actions exemplify a long-standing tension in American democracy: the fragile balance between government power and press freedom. Yet this struggle is far from new, and it is not new here at home. Nearly a century ago, in Thurston County, local politics intersected with criminal libel laws in a way that foreshadows today’s conflicts.

The story begins in November 1938, when Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Smith Troy filed criminal charges against three men: Ray Gruhlke, Lester Main, and George Johnson. He accused the defendants of distributing handbills that allegedly defamed Troy and his brother Harold, who was an assistant county prosecutor. The charges contended that the statements were malicious and intended to expose the Troys to “hatred, contempt, ridicule, and obloquy,” depriving them of public confidence, consistent with the criminal libel statutes of the time.

Almost immediately, questions arose about the integrity and motives of the public officials involved. The circumstances of the arrests suggested potential overreach, and critics argued that the case may have been politically motivated to protect the interests of Smith Troy while undermining his opponents. Affidavits from law enforcement contained conflicting accounts of the arrests, raising doubts about the accuracy and impartiality of the official record. The court initially denied motions to appoint independent attorneys to investigate the charges, further highlighting the potential for bias. The case only began to take a more credible direction once a Special Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Harry Ellsworth Foster, was appointed to replace Smith Troy, whose personal involvement as the alleged victim created an obvious conflict of interest.

Over the next several months, the Special Prosecutor’s investigation revealed that the alleged libel stemmed largely from confusion over incomplete court records. The handbills pointed to cases that the Troys were apparently prosecuting improperly, but the cases referenced in the pamphlets had been transferred, and the inconsistencies were clerical rather than malicious.

The defendants admitted their errors, tendered apologies, and Troy accepted them. By May 27, 1939, the court dismissed the case, noting that the controversy had prompted reforms to ensure future records were clearer and less prone to misinterpretation.

The Thurston County case cannot be fully understood without situating it within the broader legal context. Smith Troy would not have been able to pursue charges without statutes defining libel broadly as any malicious publication exposing living or deceased persons to hatred or contempt, or injuring any person in business or occupation. A person could be prosecuted even if the statements were true, unless published with “good motives” and “for justifiable ends.”

By the 1930s, criminal libel prosecutions had become rare, yet the statutes remained on the books through 2009, offering public officials like Troy a tool—however rarely used, to protect reputations through criminal law.

The law’s overreach and constitutional vulnerabilities became clear in 2008, when the Washington Court of Appeals struck down the criminal libel statute as facially unconstitutional. The court held that it violated the First Amendment because it punished false statements without requiring proof of actual malice and, paradoxically, could punish true statements lacking “good motives.” The legislature formally repealed the law in 2009. Modern statutes surrounding protection orders have partially revived criminalized libel in limited circumstances, primarily to address harassment and repeated false statements made with malice.

The Smith Troy case illustrates how criminal libel statutes historically empowered officials to suppress criticism, a temptation not lost on modern politicians. Trump’s attacks on the press echo the same impulse: using legal threats, regulatory power, and public shaming to undermine journalists and chill reporting. Unlike Thurston County in 1938, Trump operates on a national stage, with the ability to influence federal agencies, control access to government events, and challenge the judiciary’s interpretation of defamation law.

Yet the comparison also highlights both the fragility and resilience of press freedom. In Thurston County, the appointment of an unbiased Special Prosecutor and the eventual dismissal showed that legal checks, due process, and transparency can constrain abuses of power. Today, protections like New York Times v. Sullivan perform a similar role, ensuring that even powerful political actors cannot easily weaponize libel law against the press. Without these safeguards, the line between legitimate critique and suppression of dissent blurs, leaving citizens less informed and democracy weaker.

The trajectory from Smith Troy to Trump underscores that the press is both a target and a guardian in any democracy. Laws may criminalize speech, but misuse or selective enforcement erodes trust in both institutions and government itself. Meanwhile, as local news declines and national outlets consolidate, the onus falls more heavily on government to act transparently. A free press alone cannot ensure accountability; officials must make accurate information accessible, clear, and timely, or risk leaving the public in the dark.

History reminds us that power will always test the boundaries of scrutiny. The Thurston County libel case offers a microcosmic lesson: fair process, independent oversight, and transparent government are essential to maintaining the balance between authority and the public’s right to know. Today, as political leaders attack media and propose changes to defamation law, the stakes have moved from local to national. The core principle remains unchanged: the press must remain free to speak, investigate, and hold power accountable, and government must meet its own obligation to be transparent in a media environment that can no longer do it alone.

Smith Troy and his long leave of absence that is so unlike Troy Kelley’s, but it still interesting

This is so unlike Troy Kelley’s leave of absence, that I almost can’t mention it.

But, Auditor Kelley’s leave put me on the trail, so we’ll start in 1941, when apparently war looked so likely that the legislature passed a law allowing elected officials to take long military leaves. The crux was that the governor was also the given permission to appoint a temporary stand-in.

I wrote a bit about Smith Troy’s leave earlier here. And, I’m not proud to report, I’m apparently wrong about a few details.

For Democrat Smith Troy, as he left Olympia for Fort Lewis, and then North Carolina, this meant Republican Arthur Langlie would be able to appoint his stand-in. But, that never happened. Troy stayed away, serving as a military lawyer in the 30th Infantry Division, advancing from captain to lieutenant colonel.

For most of that time, Fred E. Lewis, a deputy appointed by Smith in 1940, led the office. And, during those war years, “the office” of attorney general meant a great deal more than it had in the past.

Soon after being appointed (and then quickly elected) attorney general in 1940, Smith went to work consolidating his power. During the 1941 session, he pressed for a law bringing in all of the state’s legal work under his office. This move more than doubled the budget of his office, and obviously expanded the power of the state attorney general.

Lewis fought off attempts in 1943 to pull back that law, leaving the office in tact until Smith came back.

Langlie didn’t last through the 1944 election, and that’s when things changed for Lewis. Walgreen either caught on that Smith in absentia didn’t actually support him for the Democratic nomination. Or he just thought that governors, not absent attorneys general should appoint temporary office fillers.

Either way, by early spring 1945, Lewis resigned and Walgreen’s man Gerald Hile took control of the office. Hile had been as assistant US Attorney when he was called down to Olympia to serve as Walgreen’s in-office lawyer. It didn’t take long for the governor to place Hile as at least a temporary attorney general.

This is the scene that Troy returned to in the summer of 1945, literally sneaking back into town to take the oath of office. He’d been returned to the office months earlier, winning re-election while overseas in 1945. By September, he was officially released from the army, and Hile was released from his service too.

Merging Smith Troy and Enoch Bagshaw

About exactly a year back I wrote about how Enoch Bagshaw, legendary Husky football coach, collapsed and died in my own city.

It turns out my favorite Olympia politician had his own had in forcing Bagshaw to Olympia. Smith Troy, who eventually was Thurston County prosecutor, and then state Attorney General, and savior of Olympia (in both senses), had a hand to play in Bagshaw’s departure.

In the late 1920s Troy was student body president up at the University of Washington. There was apparently some sort of track team cabal that ran the student government back then, and they had it out for the football head coach.

It wasn’t just a student uprising either, or at least not in the sense that it was students pressuring the school’s leadership to do something. Bagshaw worked (in a sense) for the students. The student government funded the football team, and to a degree, they controlled Bagshaw’s employment. It wasn’t until the late 1930s when the student association reformed and the 1950s when they furthered themselves even more.

But, in the 1920s, Bagshaw was being forced out by the students, led by Smith Troy.

I don’t know the subtext of the fight. Just that Troy was in the front of the student body as they fought to remove Bagshaw.

Now, while Troy conspired against Bagshaw in Seattle, Governor Roland Hartley was fighting a running battle with the Commissioner, the State Attorney General, the Thurston County Prosecutor and the various arms of his own transportation department. And, the courts. The courts got involved too.

To put thing in perspective, Hartley is our Hoover. On meth. A Republican fiddling while the state’s economy comes crashing down around his ears. The last Republican in a long line of GOP dominance in our state, ushering in Democratic and centrist Republican rule for decades.

Hartley was mean, incredibly conservative and the battle between the other branches of government had turned into a turf war, each side trying to tear down the other’s offices. To the point that Hartley had a hard time staffing his transportation office.

Hartley, an Everett conservative capitalist, had brought in Everett logger Fred Baker to run the show. He resigned, so Hartley went back to the Everett well and brought up Bagshaw, the former Everett High School football coach.

Bagshaw (and this is apparently not a lie) was also a civil engineer in his previous life before becoming a full time college coach.

Its likely Bagshaw would’ve died no matter what. He was probably already sick when he finally resigned from the U.

Smith Troy was just starting his life. He was wrapping up school about the same time Bagshaw wrapped up his gridiron career. A year after his death, Troy was getting married and starting his legal life under his brother, Thurston County prosecutor Harold Troy.

Did Washington State politics change been 1928 and 1930?

Before the 1932 election, there was hardly a Democrat in the Washington state legislature. One Democrat in the senate in 1929, eight in the house (compared to 89 Republicans). Everything chanted in 1932 when the landslide went to the Democrats.

By 1935 (after the entire Senate has seen an election since 1932), the partisan split in the legislature was 37 to 9 Dems over Republicans in the senate and 91 to 8 in the house.

This isn’t a new story in Washington State history, but one that bears investigating.

I’m mostly interested in this political flip because of my interest in Smith Troy. His political life began in the early 1930s. His brother’s election as Thurston County prosecutor began with this Democratic wave.

One of the things I’ve read about the difference between 1928 and 1932 was voter turnout. Prior to 1932, Washington (as the story goes) was a politically ambivalent state. Its long history as a territory when leaders were appointed, not elected, led to a political culture in which most people stayed home. Our live and let live attitude extended to politics.

But, apparently, that all changed in 1932. People who did not vote in 1928 stormed the polls in 1932  in reaction to Republicans not handling the dire economic times well (both back east and at the state capitol),.

But, I’m not so sure its that, or if the vast majority of voters actually changed their votes to Democratic.

I’m not able to find some actual voter turnout data between 1928 and 1932, but I was able to figure out a raw voters per thousand number. They were 32.29 percent in 1928 and 38.81 percent in 1932. So, a bump of roughly 6.5 percent. I’d assume most of those 100,000 plus new voters went Democratic.

But, there also seems to be an erosion of traditional Republican voters between those four years. Republican votes declined by over 100,000 between the two elections, despite a modest increase in the state’s population.

So, it was probably a combination of factors, including a wave a new voters. Anyway, just thinking out loud.

Clarence Boggie’s Christmas (I’m sorry I couldn’t tell it better, Boggie)

Oregon wanted Boggie back.

Instead of just opening up the prison doors for Clarence G. Boggie, the Oregon parole board wanted Washington to drive him down to the Columbia River and hand him over to Oregon authorities. Since over a decade earlier, Boggie had been serving a life sentence for a murder he didn’t commit.

I’m not telling this story well. This really does deserve a better telling than I’m giving it here. I suppose this is the double edged sword of coming up with a holiday topical post. I didn’t get to it until too late into the season, and now I am too distracted to really put my heart into it.

Not that Boggie wasn’t the cleanest of men. He had committed crimes in Oregon, and on the day after he release from prison in 1948 (pardoned by Washington’s governor after a Seattle Times investigation) Oregon wanted him back.

Washington’s Warden Tom Smith:

“if they want Boggie,” (Oregon officials) should have followed regular procedure and had “someone waiting for him as he walked through the gates instead of just “pooping off” on Christmas Eve.”

I mean, this story is insane. He was in jail for over a decade, and he was just rotting there. It was the Seattle Times that really sprung him. Over three days they laid out an evidence of his innocence. It was so strong, the state literally threw the doors open to him.

Attorney General Smith Troy (Olympia’s own):

It would be a tragedy not to give Boggie a chance now. I hope Oregon officials will straighten out the technicalities involved and give Boggie a chance to be rehabilitated.

Boggie had been caught up in the historic context of Spokane in the 1930s. Officially, the capitol of the Inland Empire was not a fun place. It was extremely corrupt. Moritz Peterson was beat to death in 1933, and two years later, based on shaky testimony from witnesses, he was convicted.

Among other angles on this story, the Seattle vs. Spokane angle, the Blethens of the Seattle Times taking on their eastern neighbors, is really interesting to me. If I had the time. 


I’ll be honest. I was shopping around for a Christmas post and happened upon this. Literally I was searching “Smith Troy” and Christmas, hoping to find some episode that showed Troy (my favorite politician of all time) in some festive light. 


I even mistook the warden Smith’s quote above with Smith Troy’s. Boggie deserves much better than some dumb Smith Troy angle.

Oregon never got him back. At least behind bars. Boggie died in Lebanon in 1949.

Look at how Smith Troy is smiling

Note: (April 20, 2015) I got a load of details wrong writing this post. I’ve corrected them in this updated post. But, I’ll leave them here for you to read and enjoy. Just not facts though, just an Emmett story.

He literally snuck back into town to take the oath of office.

He looks like he just ate the bird.

Or, he’s just really super happy to be home after years at war. So, there should be some of that. But, I think there’s a healthy dose of having gotten one over on room full of befuddled old men who would have like to replace him while he was gone.

From the AG’s official history:

From 1943 to 1945, General Troy served in the Army in Europe as
Lieutenant Colonel Troy and earned five battle stars. During this time,
Troy’s deputy served as acting Attorney General.

This apparently was quit the coup for Troy. If normal process had been followed, Troy would have resigned and the governor would have appointed a replacement. But, Troy was able to write an opinion that his deputy serve for him and run for office in 1944 while serving.

The other people in the room look kind of surprised to be at a swearing in ceremony:

 Seems like Troy was actually in town for a month or so before he was sworn in at the end of August. He didn’t end up taking charge of the office again until the middle of September.

But, in the end, he was able to pull of nearly two years, AG in the war theatre, and settle back in to his seat of power, befuddled old guys on his shoulders.

A massive explosion in 1934 (mostly because I’m out of blogging topics) and some cool watermarked video

I’m literally posting this because I am lacking something for this week’s second post. I was hoping to find a tsunami map for Budd Inlet or some reflection on homeless students, but came up short.

I had nothing prepared, nothing inspirational for you. So, this is just a smidge of some Smith Troy out of context and some interesting video.

From Historylink:

On Wednesday afternoon, June 27, 1934, 10 people are killed and seven
are injured when two explosions demolish the J. A. Denn Powder Company
plant on Hawk’s Prairie, eight miles east of Olympia.  An 11th victim,
the company chemist, will die from his injuries the following day. 
Thurston County authorities investigate the accident, but so little of
the plant remains that the official cause will remain a mystery.

Smith Troy, the Thurston County coroner as well as a deputy county
prosecutor, began an immediate investigation of the disaster.  He was
assisted in the inquest by Claude Havens, Thurston County Sheriff;
William A. Sullivan, Washington State Insurance Commissioner, acting as
ex-officio state fire marshal; and E. Patrick Kelly, Washington State
Director of Labor and Industries.


During an interview, Troy told reporters: “So little remains of the
plant and surrounding buildings, about all we can hope to do is
question survivors.  It will be difficult to determine the causes, but
we may discover who, if anybody, was responsible for the blast” (The Seattle Times).

Smith Troy once arrested the man that was running against him for county prosecutor

Smith Troy, the 1930s era Thurston County prosecutor, is one of the most fascinating historic figures, must have had brass balls. Seriously, he could not have lacked for guts.

I’d  certainly not argue that he was always on the angel side of things. But, when he acted, he seemed to act with no consideration of alternatives. Full forward.

Like the time in fall of 1938 he arrested the person who was running against him for prosecutor for campaign against him:

Sure, Gruhlke might have stretched the truth. But, it is hardly a lie to say the prosecutor should have arrested more prostitutes. And, no matter how he phrased it, that is pretty much all that Gruhlke said.

And, even if Gruhlke said “I know for a fact that Troy decided not to arrest women of the night!” it is a strange image of a prosecutor running for office arresting his opponent.

Gruhlke quickly and phased Troy down:

  
But, then months later, after Smith won another term, the parties kissed and made up. Smith was only just over a year away from being appointed state Attorney General. He had just prosecuted a high profile attempted murder case and he had empanelled a grand jury looking into misuse of state funds. And, he arrested someone for campaigning against him.
And, in the end, he got an apology from the man he arrested.

Smith Troy project. This guy is facinating

I’ve been poking around for the last few years, learning everything I can about Smith Troy, one of Olympia’s most infamous politicians. This is one fascinating guy. I’m going to write way more about him as I start to bring focus on my own thoughts about him. But, just to get started, here are some Smith Troy facts:

1. He was appointed Washington Attorney general when he was 33 years old. And, this is after years as the Thurston County prosecuting attorney. So, he started really young.

2. At one point in the 1930s, Smith was both the prosecutor and the
coroner. Also, the sheriff was taking some time off, so he filled in
there too. He was the law.

3. His wife committed suicide when she jumped out of a window at the old St. Peter’s Hospital on the westside.

4. After he lost reelection in 1952 for AG, he was the lawyer behind Lemon v. Langley, which brought back dozens of state agencies that had moved from Olympia to Seattle.

5. In addition to being a track star at the University of Washington, he was a student leader in the effort to fire long time and legendary Husky football coach Enoch Bagshaw.

6. After 20 years of political retirement, Troy came back in the 1970s and served as the Thurston County prosecutor again.

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