Vitter is getting ridiculous.
Federal Election Commission Thursday whether he can use campaign funds to pay for the $137,177 in legal fees he incurred from his involvement in the case of a woman convicted of running a high-priced Washington prostitution ring.
The Louisiana Republican acknowledged in July 2007 that his phone number appeared on the client list of the woman dubbed “the D.C. Madam.” Deborah Jeane Palfrey was convicted in federal court in April of money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy.
In a letter to the FEC, an attorney for Vitter says his client incurred the legal expenses in monitoring the Palfrey trial and quashing the subpoenas issued to him.
Vitter also had to hire attorneys to defend himself to the Senate Ethics Committee because of a complaint filed by the government watchdog group Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The complaint was dismissed by the committee, which noted that Vitter was not charged with a crime and the incidents occurred when he was a House member.
The legal fees also cover the advice Vitter received on how to manage the case and address it publicly, wrote his attorney, Jan Witold Baran.
“The Senator’s involvement in the Palfrey matter was predicated solely on his status as a United States Senator,” Baran wrote. “Other individuals whose phone numbers appeared in Ms. Palfrey’s records who did not have a public profile like the Senator’s were not dragged into the legal proceedings and did not incur the related legal fees.”
Vitter has paid $70,000 of the legal fees personally and is asking that the money be re-imbursed through the campaign funds, the letter says.
FEC officials could not be reached late Wednesday afternoon for comment. Through his spokesman, Vitter declined to comment on the letter. The latest FEC campaign contributions report for Vitter, filed March 31, shows he has $1.6 million in his campaign coffers.
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