… though he offered almost no specifics at today’s news conference as to why and how.

“I can also assure that I will not leave this planet until my name is cleared, as in completely cleared,” he said. “And I will not leave this planet until the individuals behind this are held fully accountable and within the law.”

Mr. Doyle was indicted in 2013 for embezzlement, forgery and obtaining money under false pretenses.

Mr. Doyle’s organization, the Institute for International Sport, received a gasp-inducing $7.3 million from Rhode Island taxpayers courtesy the General Assembly, largely if not entirely via state grants – grants that have very much been under fire lately. The criminal case against Mr. Doyle, in fact, arose out of a $575,000 state grant.

Rhode Island State Police and the office of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin launched an investigation in Feb. 2012 after an audit found the institute couldn’t account for how it spent most of a $575,000 legislative grant. The state gave the institute more than $7.3 million between 1988 and 2011.

Obviously, this situation is also a major indictment of the lack of responsibility and oversight that accompanies the distribution of legislative and community service grants by the General Assembly, a point that – perfect timing – Representative Patricia Morgan underscores in an op-ed in today’s ProJo. Rep Morgan goes on to correctly call for the suspension of all of these grants.

To return to Mr. Doyle’s news conference of today, it is interesting that he appears to have taken a page out of Speaker Mattiello and Donald Trump’s how-to-handle-the-media book by criticizing, albeit not quite as bombastically, the press.

Doyle said he is working on making how media organizations have covered the case against him into an examination of media ethics, with findings to be determined by a journalism school. “It would be impossible for me to convey my outrage regarding the manner in which the media has reported on this case since February 5, 2012,” he said.

Doyle asked reporters to ask themselves to what extent their reporting on his case was influenced by “outside forces.”

I had never heard that this is a particularly smart or effective approach to interacting with the media. But it sure makes for an interesting press conference.