Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam says he has no idea why FBI raided headquarters of family business

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

photo Bill Haslam

NASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Haslam said today he has no idea why the FBI raided the Knoxville headquarters of his family's Pilot Flying J truck stop chain on Monday.

"Obviously when something happens like this, there's a lot of gossip and suspicion about what happened and the truth is nobody knows, and I don't know either" the governor told reporters. "I really don't know any more about the facts than you do."

He said he spoke with his brother, Jimmy Haslam, who runs the company on Monday evening.

The governor said his brother told him "they were going to cooperate fully and that he firmly believes they haven't done anything wrong, and I have faith and confidence in him."

Haslam said he has not been involved in the company's operations for years. His spokesman, Alexia Poe, said he had exited the business in 2003 when he became mayor of Knoxville.

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The FBI, which served a search warrant at Pilot, has not been in contact with him.

"I don't really know a lot so I'm going to go back to being governor and doing the things I can control," he said. "All I know is they came in looking for certain records."

The FBI has said little about agents' action with a spokesman telling the Associated Press the move was part of an ongoing investigation.

See social media reactions to the Pilot FBI raid.

Also read at Knox News: Second search warrant executed against Pilot Flying J