I was a bit surprised too, until I read the letter she wrote to the Ethics Commission and their reply to her.
She had asked about a book focusing on high profile cases in the state in general, and “the process” of those cases. She did not ask about any particular case and made it sound like it would feature several.
Their whole opinion was centered around a book that is vastly different than what it ended up being. They may have said “ok” to that scenario but her book, obviously, focuses on one single case entirely. Her mention of having this idea for the book and starting “4 months before January”, the start of the trial, also makes one wonder why she represented the book the way she did when her own words say she already decided it was a Murdaugh specific book (she mentions this in Impact of Influence Episode 140).
In one of my above posts I tried to further explain how their “are prohibited from using any confidential information, as that term is defined in Section 8-13-100(7)” line, as IMOO much of her book details “confidential information” - per their definition - that she would not have obtained if she was not the Clerk.