Political Law Links for April 26, 2017

FORMER TREASURER SENTENCED.   OCR.  “A Republican activist who embezzled more than $200,000 from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s re-election campaign was ordered Tuesday to serve a year in jail and five years of formal probation and to pay back the money he stole.”

JUDGE SETS PENALTY.  DM.  “Former Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell and her campaign committee have been fined for using campaign funds to pay her rent, a federal judge has ruled.”

REQUEST TO DROP CHARGES.   Hill.  “Former Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who has been indicted on two-dozen fraud-related charges, wants a federal court to dismiss five counts on the falsifying of campaign finance records.”

COMPLAINT ON HOTEL.  CNN.  “A clause in the lease says no elected official can be a party to it — suggesting that Trump was in breach the moment he was sworn in.”

JOHNSON CASE UPDATE.  SLT.  “The FEC sued Johnson and former Utah Attorney General John Swallow in 2015, saying the pair engaged in a scheme that saw straw donors — Johnson’s friends and family — funnel $170,000 in illegal campaign contributions to candidates for federal offices in 2009 and 2010.”

CA:  LOWER FINE.   SMDJ.  “The Fair Political Practices Commission is still determining the amount of fine Belmont Councilman Eric Reed will pay for failing to disclose ownership of more than $2,000 in AT&T stock in a timely manner.”

MT:   BILL SNAG.   MTPR.  “Billings Republican Tom Richmond says his bill to increase contribution limits and remove loopholes in state campaign laws passed with wide support, picking up all but two votes in the Senate in March, but is now at risk of being vetoed by the governor unless changed.”

RI:  COMPLAINT MOVES.    PRI.  “The state Ethics Commission on Tuesday voted 5-2 to find probable cause that Justice Francis Flaherty violated the ethics code by failing to report his service on the board of a Catholic lawyers’ group.”

TX:  COMPLAINT AGAINST PAC.  SM.  “Don Zimmerman, head of the Travis County Taxpayers Union political action committee, has filed an ethics complaint against the Betterment of Round Rock Texas PAC, saying the group violated the ethics code by making a contribution to another PAC after they had dissolved.”

VT:  ETHICS BILL MOVES.   VTD.  “The bill to create a State Ethics Commission took a key step forward Tuesday with approval from the House Government Operations Committee.”

WI:  COMPLAINT DISMISSED.  MAD.  “The city’s Ethics Board dismissed a complaint Tuesday filed against Ald. Sara Eskrich alleging she was improperly involved in the awarding of a contract to a privately run beer garden to operate in Olbrich Park.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

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