Part of: Assignment Desk Works, LLC v. Alexis Berg · Musgrave v. Mace (2:25-cv-01823-RMG) · Litigation Overview & Court-Filing Index
Solicitor Duffie Stone to SLED: Mace's Allegations Have "Turned Out to Not Be True"
In an August 18, 2026 letter to a State Law Enforcement Division captain, published October 14, 2026 by FITSNews and ABC News 4, Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone wrote that Rep. Nancy Mace "made many allegations to law enforcement and to the public that have turned out to not be true," and that her public statements branding Brian Musgrave a predator, a rapist and a human trafficker came when she "offered neither evidence nor even suspicions to law enforcement to justify her comments." Musgrave has not been charged. The letter is a prosecutor's review, not a court finding, and is partly redacted as published.
"Congresswoman Nancy Mace made many allegations to law enforcement and to the public that have turned out to not be true."
That is Isaac McDuffie "Duffie" Stone III, Solicitor of South Carolina's Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, in an August 18, 2026 letter to Capt. Haley Nelson of the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). It is on page 2 of a three-page letter that FITSNews and ABC News 4 published on October 14, 2026. Stone's next sentence: "Nancy Mace's very public statements branding Brian Musgrave a predator, a rapist, and a human trafficker are shocking when she offered neither evidence nor even suspicions to law enforcement to justify her comments."
Reporting credit: the letter was published by FITSNews (Will Folks) and by ABC News 4 / WACH (Perrin Moore), both on October 14, 2026. The page images below are the scan FITSNews published, with its watermark and its redactions exactly as published. We have not altered, completed or un-redacted anything.
The 52-second cut below plays Rep. Mace's own words from her February 10, 2025 House floor speech under Stone's sentences, with the letter on screen.
Floor footage: Rep. Nancy Mace's official House feed, February 10, 2025. Letter via FITSNews and ABC News 4. On screen, the r-word is starred; the audio and the letter are unchanged. The poster board behind Mace is blurred where it shows other people's photographs.
The letter, shown
Page 1. Stone writes that prosecutors "must first be convinced that a crime has been committed by the accused and that there is sufficient admissible evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. If either of these tests fail, we must not proceed. I have never prosecuted anyone that I was not first convinced was guilty." Click for full size.
Page 2, the page that carries the headline sentence. Most of the lower half is blacked out as published. Click for full size.
Page 3: a redacted block, the closing line and the signature. Click for full size.
The filing itself: Stone letter to Capt. Haley Nelson, SLED, August 18, 2026 (PDF, 3 pages, as published by FITSNews, redactions untouched).
What the letter says, in his words
- The standard. "Our ethics require that we are prepared, fair and as concerned with exonerating the innocent as with convicting the guilty." And: "I have never prosecuted anyone that I was not first convinced was guilty."
- On Mace's statements. "Congresswoman Nancy Mace made many allegations to law enforcement and to the public that have turned out to not be true."
- On Musgrave. Her "very public statements branding Brian Musgrave a predator, a rapist, and a human trafficker are shocking when she offered neither evidence nor even suspicions to law enforcement to justify her comments."
- The limits Stone sets on his own review. He writes that he is "relying on SLED's investigation of the evidence," that he has "not reviewed all digital evidence," and that he agrees with Solicitor Scarlett Wilson's assessment of the facts SLED provided and the law as it applies.
Context
SLED file 11-23-0312 is the State Law Enforcement Division's investigation that followed Mace's February 10, 2025 House floor speech, in which she named four men and called them predators. Stone's letter says Solicitor Wilson of the Ninth Judicial Circuit reviewed SLED's report, consulted Solicitor Kevin Brackett of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit and Stone, and asked Stone for his view. Wilson's memorandum of August 14, 2026 is covered in our separate dispatch, Solicitor Wilson to SLED. Brackett wrote a third letter, dated August 21, 2026, which is also part of the published set.
Background: Brian Musgrave and the case hub for Musgrave v. Mace.
Where it stands
- This is a prosecutor's letter, not a court finding. Stone is reviewing a SLED report for a colleague. No court has ruled on whether Mace's accusation is true. The August 20, 2025 federal order dismissing Musgrave's defamation suit turned on the Westfall Act and expressly took no position on truth. See our narrated documentary dispatch.
- Musgrave denies the accusation and has not been charged in connection with it.
- Mace's response. Her office issued a press release on October 14, 2026, the day the letters were published. It says: "Every predator deserves accountability." It does not mention Musgrave or the letters. We found no statement from her addressing Stone's letter, and nothing in what we found retracts her February 2025 statements.
- The letter is scanned and heavily redacted as published. We do not know what is blacked out. Read the visible text as the visible text only.
- Everything else in the SLED file is pending and contested.
Sources and related coverage
The filing itself:
Reporting that published the letter (October 14, 2026):
Mace's response:
Footage:
- Rep. Nancy Mace, House floor speech, February 10, 2025: official YouTube channel
Related on Maceopedia:
Read next
October 17, 2026 · DispatchSolicitor Kevin Brackett: Without Her House Floor Protection, Mace "Would Have and Should Have Been Sued Into Bankruptcy"
In an August 21, 2026 letter to Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, copied to a State Law Enforcement Division captain and published October 14, 2026 by FITSNews and ABC News 4, Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Kevin S. Brackett wrote that had Rep. Nancy Mace not been speaking on the House floor and protected from civil liability by the Constitution, she "would have and should have been sued into bankruptcy." He also wrote that "there is not one speck of evidence that substantiates any of the reckless accusations she made against Mr. Musgrave" and that he wondered whether Mace would "muster a sufficient sense of shame to compel an apology." Brian Musgrave denies Mace's accusations and has not been charged. A solicitor's letter is a prosecutor's review, not a court finding.
October 15, 2026 · DispatchSolicitor Scarlett Wilson to SLED: Mace's Credibility "Would Be Thoroughly Undermined"
In an August 14, 2026 Memorandum of Review to SLED, published October 14 by FITSNews and ABC News 4, Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wrote that Rep. Nancy Mace's credibility 'would be thoroughly undermined by her false allegations against Mr. Musgrave.' Wilson also wrote that her review offers 'zero evidence' against Brian Musgrave and that Solicitors Duffie Stone and Kevin Brackett 'concur with my assessments.' Musgrave denies Mace's accusations and has not been charged. The letters are prosecutors' reviews, not court findings. Mace has not publicly addressed them.
October 11, 2026 · DispatchBrian Musgrave Sued Nancy Mace. The Court Threw It Out.
Brian Musgrave, one of the four men Nancy Mace named in her February 10, 2025 House floor speech, filed two defamation suits. The first, against Mace, was dismissed with prejudice on August 20, 2025 after the United States was substituted for her under the Westfall Act; the judge wrote that 'Plaintiff has no civil remedy to hold accountable persons he believes have defamed him' and that the court 'offers no opinion concerning the truthfulness or the lack of truthfulness' of her allegations. The second, against OAN's parent company and the Louder with Crowder podcast, produced a September 30, 2026 order: the parent company was dismissed without prejudice for lack of personal jurisdiction, and the podcast defendants won summary judgment because their statements were not susceptible to a defamatory meaning as to Musgrave. Neither court decided whether Mace's accusations are true. Musgrave denies them. Mace denies wrongdoing.
October 17, 2026 · DispatchEXCLUSIVE: Brian Musgrave Speaks to ABC News 4 After Three Prosecutors Clear Him
In an exclusive interview with ABC News 4 (WCIV), Brian Musgrave describes learning from a reporter's text, while driving to buy birdseed, that Rep. Nancy Mace had named him in her February 10, 2025 House floor speech, and what it was like to read the letters of three South Carolina solicitors. Solicitor Kevin Brackett wrote that there is “not one speck of evidence that substantiates any of the reckless accusations she made against Mr. Musgrave and that he is completely innocent of these outrageous claims.” Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wrote of “the lack of even a scintilla of evidence.” Solicitor Duffie Stone wrote that Mace offered “neither evidence nor even suspicions.” Musgrave’s federal suit against Mace was dismissed on August 20, 2025 on immunity grounds, and the court offered no opinion on whether her allegations were true. ABC News 4 reported that Mace has offered no apology. The interview is ABC News 4’s, by Madison Wilber, Oct. 16, 2026.
October 17, 2026 · DispatchPatrick Bryant at ABC News 4: Brian Musgrave Is “Completely Exonerated”
On Oct. 16, 2026, Patrick Bryant gave a statement at the ABC News 4 studio about his friend Brian Musgrave, a day after the station reported three solicitors' letters on Rep. Nancy Mace's accusations against Musgrave. Bryant said Musgrave has been “completely exonerated of any wrongdoing” and that the allegations were “completely baseless.” Those are Bryant's words. The letters are prosecutors' reviews, not court findings. Musgrave denies Mace's accusations and has not been charged. Mace denies wrongdoing.
October 15, 2026 · Dispatch"She Would Have and Should Have Been Sued Into Bankruptcy": Three South Carolina Prosecutors on Nancy Mace's Accusations Against Brian Musgrave
Three of South Carolina's senior prosecutors reviewed the state investigation of Rep. Nancy Mace's accusations, and each wrote, in a letter now public, that her public accusations against Brian Musgrave lacked evidence. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson called them 'spurious claims' resting on 'the lack of even a scintilla of evidence' (Aug. 14, 2026). Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone wrote that her statements 'branding Brian Musgrave a predator, a rapist, and a human trafficker are shocking' (Aug. 18). Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett wrote that 'there is not one speck of evidence' and that, had she not been protected by the Constitution, she 'would have and should have been sued into bankruptcy' (Aug. 21). FITSNews and ABC News 4 published the letters on Oct. 14, 2026. The letters are shown here. Musgrave has always denied the accusations. Mace has not retracted them.