Campaign funds are not for Criminal Defense

by: Jason Springer

Thu Dec 04, 2008 at 06:57:38 PM EST

Elected Officials who run afoul of the law are going to have to find a different way to pay for their defense because they won't be able to use the campaign warchest. Wayne Bryant wanted to use some of his $640,000 campaign fund to pay his legal bills. First he was denied by ELEC and today that decision was upheld by a state appeals court:

"Even in an era when public officials are being called with increasing frequency to answer criminal charges of corruption in office, their legal defense costs could hardly be described as an 'ordinary' expense of office-holding," the judges wrote.

Bryant's team has a few weeks to appeal to the Supreme Court and haven't decided whether they will. I understand the money was donated to the official, but it was for the purpose of electing them to office not helping to avoid incarceration in prison. If you violate the public trust, you shouldn't be able to benefit from the faith they put in you before you let them down.

Jason Springer :: Campaign funds are not for Criminal Defense

Tags: Wayne Bryant, ELEC, campaign funds, (All Tags)

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Campaign funds are not for Criminal Defense | 1 comments

Sheer Arrogant Chutzpah.... (0.00 / 0)

this is like a bank robber using the cash to pay hie layer to enter a plea of not guilty.

The sentences of white collar and offical misconduct need to be greatly strengthened.

Ten years, minimum, no probation....and general population in real prisons. No country clubs.

The people who commit these kinds of crimes are usually pretty smart and the prospects of harsh punishment would deter them.

These are not crimes of impulse, committed by the poor and the desperate...they are premeditated raping of the public trust and should be punished harshly.

As it stands now, some people are getting slammed for "three strikes" while white collar criminals guilty of stealing millions (billions!) are getting off light or scott free....and pols who betray the public trust are busted for the smallest bits of corruption...when it's clear that they routinely operate in that manner.

We need to make the punishment fit the crime, eh?

And messing with democracy is a form of terrorism as far as I can see.

Nothing Al Qaeda did on 9-11 was a threat to our democracy. Yet crooked pols succeed where Bin Laden failed. They undermine the very substance of governance and they undermine the confidence of the people in ther government.

The corrupt pol is at least as much of a threat as the crazed terrorist...and arguably, more.

by: Nick Lento @ Fri Dec 05, 2008 at 02:07:48 AM UTC