Schmidt raises $5000 for her legal expense trust | Politics Extra

Rep. Jean Schmidt at the Enquirer, Aug. 11, 2011. The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

Rep. Jean Schmidt raised $5,000 for her legal expense trust, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The Miami Township Republican created the Jean Schmidt Legal Expense Trust fund last year, after the House ethics committee said she had to replay about $500,000 in improper legal fees she had unknowingly received from a Turkish group.

Schmidt?s spokesman, Barrett Brunsman, said that a filing due today will show that Schmidt raised no funds for the trust last year, except a $10 donation she made herself. But she has $5,000 for the trust this year, and that ?additional significant contributions? are expected.

He also said that Schmidt has repaid $42,812 in legal fees stemming from an amicus brief filed on her behalf. The ethics panel had said she could not use funds raised through her legal trust for the costs of the amicus brief.

The legal trust fundraising activity, while relatively minimal compared to her regular House re-election committee, represents another step in Schmidt?s efforts to comply with a ruling by the House ethics panel. Last August, the committee found that Schmidt had unknowingly received an improper gift of about $500,000 in legal fees paid on her behalf by the Turkish Coalition of America.

The lawyers? fees stemmed from legal battles with David Krikorian, a political who ran against Schmidt in 2008 and has filed to run against her again this year. The Turkish American Coalition paid lawyers who were representing Schmidt in two cases against Krikorian, through an affiliated group called the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund.

On Aug. 5, the House ethics committee ruled that Schmidt did not know her lawyers had sent the bills to the coalition, but that the payment still amounted to an improper gift. The panel directed Schmidt to amend her 2009 and 2010 financial disclosure forms, which lawmakers file annually to provide information about their personal finances, to reflect the improper gift, and begin to repay the fees.

Earlier this month, Schmidt amended her disclosure forms to reflect $439,109.90 in gifts from the Turkish group. Her spokesman, Barrett Brunsman, said that amount reflected an accurate tally of the lawyers? fees, noting the committee?s $500,000 figure was an estimate.

Posted in: 2nd Congressional District, Congress, Republicans, Updates

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/31/schmidt-raises-5000-for-her-legal-expense-trust/

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