To those who knew former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s one-time chief of staff, Roy McGrath was fastidious to a fault. He was task-oriented and strait-laced, a career public servant and political operator who was quirky and deeply concerned about his image.
What McGrath did not seem to be, they said, was a criminal mastermind – which made his fall from grace all the more remarkable, a human and political tragedy that leaves a trail of questions that may never be answered.
McGrath, 53, faced charges of wire fraud, embezzlement and falsifying documents. He died in a hospital after a nationwide, three-week manhunt ended on April 3 in a confrontation with FBI agents near a Sonic Drive-In on the outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee, according to McGrath’s attorney.
The FBI in a statement to CNN acknowledged McGrath’s death in a “shooting incident involving an FBI special agent” and said a review was underway.
“He was not a crook,” said Len Foxwell, a Maryland Democratic strategist who got to know McGrath over the years. “He was a career government relations official, political operative and government worker who got caught up in a situation that spiraled out of control.”
McGrath, a top aide to Hogan for a few months during the summer of 2020, faced state and federal charges related to an alleged scheme to bilk Maryland out of more than $276,000.
The six-figure sum mostly represented a severance package from one state job McGrath had before taking another state job as Hogan’s chief of staff, according to prosecutors who say McGrath lied about Hogan’s awareness and approval of the payment.
Hogan, who announced last month that he would not seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, denied agreeing to the severance, according to federal prosecutors. Prior to his work as Hogan’s chief of staff McGrath had…
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