Remember, Larry Craig? Yeah, you do. Apparently he spent 215k of campaign cash on his legal defense after being arrested in a Minnesota bathroom for wide stancing.
The FEC charges that defense was personal and not a proper campaign expense, and wants it paid back with penalties.
Craig counters that money tied to his airport bathroom trip was neither for personal use or his campaign, but falls under his official, reimbursable duties as senator because he was traveling between Idaho and the nation’s capital for work.
He cites a U.S. Senate rule in which reimbursable per diem expenses include all charges for meals, lodging, hotel fans, cleaning, pressing of clothing – and bathrooms.
“Not only was the trip itself constitutionally required, but Senate rules sanction reimbursement for any cost relating to a senator’s use of a bathroom while on official travel,” wrote Andrew Herman, Craig’s lawyer in Washington, D.C., in documents filed Thursday.
Well done, Andrew Herman. You win.
Article source: http://www.peachpundit.com/2012/08/04/this-week-in-creative-lawyering/
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