WASHINGTON — Federal regulators ruled for the first time Thursday that campaign funds can be used to help pay the legal bills of current and former congressional staffers.
The Federal Election Commission decided that Rep. Pete Visclosky's campaign committee could be tapped to pay these legal expenses. The Indiana Democrat is under investigation for his ties to a now-defunct lobbying firm, PMA Group. He and members of his current and former staff have been subpoenaed by federal investigators.
The agency previously had allowed campaign funds to be used only for legal expenses of officeholders or candidates. But this time around, the commissioners voted 5-1 in favor of allowing the practice.
FEC Chairman Steven T. Walther was the sole member to vote against the advisory opinion, saying he was concerned that there was not enough information to determine in some cases whether a former staff's legal bills would have been incurred independent of their work for Visclosky. Another commissioner, Donald F. McGhan, voted to allow the funds to be used, but said that using campaign funds to pay for legal fees raised some ethical questions.
"Someday could you have someone think through who is actually paying the legal fee and who is the client and have potential conflicts? Yes, but I'm not sure that's really our job to decide this," he added.
"It's a concern. I just think it's not a concern the commission can address," McGhan said.
Under the FEC's ruling, Visclosky's current and former staff can use campaign funds only if the bills needing payment are a direct result of their work for Visclosky and would not have been incurred under other circumstances.
Visclosky had more than $950,000 in his campaign account at the end of June.