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Mon: Easley update, late
posted at 2009-10-27 01:05 | Last modified 2009-10-27 06:53
First, a clarification for my earlier entry from today. If the former governor used campaign funds to pay for his house repairs, as former insider McQueen Campbell testified, that isn’t illegal – or at least it wasn’t at the time.
In 2004, when Easley asked Campbell to deal with the repairs to his Raleigh home, elected officials were allowed to use campaign funds for pretty much anything, provided they disclosed the campaign expenditure. That was changed by legislators in 2006, one of many ethics laws tightened in the wake of Jim Black scandal.
The issue is the disclosure part – and like former lawmaker Thomas Wright, it appears Easley was tripped up by the cover-up. Spending his campaign funds on his house wasn’t illegal, but reporting the expense as a reimbursement for something else was.
On the stand, McQueen Campbell told Larry Leake about the phone call.
Campbell: I called Governor Easley and told him how much the repairs were, and he asked if there were any unbilled flights.
Leake: ...What did you understand he was saying by that statement?
Campbell: For me to bill the campaign for unbilled flights to cover those amounts.
A few minutes later, Easley attorney Thomas Hicks tried to paint Campbell’s interpretation as a mistake.
Hicks: He never told you to file a false invoice to his committee, did he?
Campbell: Not specifically, no, sir, but I understood what he meant.
Rebecca McGhee thought she understood the former governor, too. She was working with Easley campaign treasurer Dave Horne in 2004 when Campbell’s first fake invoice crossed her desk. It was short on detail, so she flagged it, she said, calling Campbell to ask for more documentation.
Soon after that, McGhee testified, she received a call from Easley, directing her to pay the invoice immediately without further questions, which she did. If she’s telling the truth about that call, it'll be hard for Hicks to argue Easley didn't know what Campbell was doing.
Also of interest
- Fayetteville auto dealer Bob Bleecker also took the stand to explain his car-leasing arrangement with the former governor. Bleecker says he would send a car for the Easley family to use, and when they were done with it, they would “settle up.” Bleecker covered the tax, tag, and insurance on Mike Jr.'s Yukon for seven years, an arrangement he hesitantly admitted was "unusual."
- Wilmington developers Lanny Wilson and Nick Garrett testified this afternoon, too. Both said they were told by campaign staff (including Easley advisor Ruffin Poole) that they could tell donors their checks to the state party could be directed to the "Governor's Fund" for the use of the Easley campaign. That's not legally allowed. A lawyer for Easley said Wilson and Garrett may have misunderstood the law, but the elections board wants to know if there was any special fund at the state party. (If those names sound familiar, it’s because both were involved in an Easley real estate transaction some say was a sweetheart deal. But the elections board didn’t ask about the deal, maybe because the federal grand jury already is.)
- Easley's former general counsel Ruffin Poole was set to testify today, but filed suit against the Election Board this morning, seeking to quash the subpoena on the grounds it would violate attorney-client privilege. A Wake judge found in Poole's favor. The state appealed, arguing that asking Poole to testify about his own fundraising wouldn't infringe on attorney-client confidentiality. An expedited ruling is expected Tuesday.
Comments? Drop me a line.
