Craig legal bills mount in bid to clear name

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Larry Craig continues to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to clear his name of a misdemeanor conviction, according to reports filed Thursday with the Federal Elections Commission.

The Idaho Republican spent nearly $175,000 on lawyers in the final months of 2007. That includes $53,608 for Stan Brand, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who is acting as liaison for the Senate Ethics Committee investigation into Craig’s conduct last summer when he was arrested in a sex sting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

In the final three months of the year, Craig spent $99,095 of his campaign money with Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan, the Washington, D.C., law firm that’s home to Billy Martin, the lead lawyer in Craig’s effort to overturn his guilty plea to disorderly conduct in connection with the sting.

Craig also spent $22,032 with Kelly and Jacobson, the Minneapolis law firm that is assisting Martin with the appeal.

Martin’s spokeswoman, Judy Smith, wouldn’t comment on the FEC filing, but she did point out that appeals are “very, very expensive.” Brand did not return a phone call from the Idaho Statesman, of Boise. Craig’s office has refused since Sept. 19 to answer questions from the newspaper.

The FEC generally allows lawmakers to use money from their campaign accounts to pay their legal expenses, as long as the bills stem from actions they took as an officeholder.

Craig’s overall legal tab in connection with his arrest and its fallout totals $201,420, according to his two most recent FEC filings. Most of that money has gone toward his long-shot appeal of his guilty plea, which is pending in the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

In June, an undercover officer arrested Craig in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport as part of an investigation into complaints of sex acts in the restrooms. The investigator said that Craig tapped his feet and ran his hand under the stall – signals the officer interpreted as expressing interest in sex. Craig mailed in his guilty plea Aug. 1, without ever consulting a lawyer.

The news of Craig’s arrest didn’t break until Aug. 27. Less than a week later, Craig called a news conference to say he would resign. But he changed his mind and said he would stay in the Senate through the end of his term, saying he wanted to clear his name by appealing his guilty plea and fighting the ethics investigation.

It’s not apparent what sort of legal work Brand has done for Craig on the ethics investigation. The Senate Ethics Committee will not disclose the status of Craig’s case.

The committee’s members did release an end-of-the-year report Thursday, though, and in it said that it had five ethics investigations from 2007 that they were carrying over into 2008. The committee’s report doesn’t disclose which senators remain under investigation, however, and there’s no indication other than Brand’s legal bills that they’ve made any progress on Craig’s investigation.

Craig’s FEC report shows that with just under a year left to go in office, he still has $289,505 remaining in his campaign account.

It also shows he took in three donations the last three months of 2007: $500 from businessman Robert Karr, of Arco; $2,500 from the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Political Action Committee; and $11,645 from a fundraising committee that was set up to help GOP senators who face re-election this year. That money was pledged to Craig at a Republican fundraising event in April, although he and other senators did not receive it until this fall.