That’s Speaker Jim Black’s response to Michael Decker’s claim that Black conspired with Decker to commit fraud. Decker pleaded guilty in August to accepting a $50,000 bribe to switch parties in 2003 and support Black for the office of speaker.
As Richard Meyers, a UNC Chapel Hill law professor and former federal prosecutor, says, “Someone who has pled guilty to a conspiracy is usually in a position to know who their co-conspirators are.” Ba dum-dum, splash!
More interesting still is the disclosure that Black has spent $915,000 of his campaign war-chest on legal bills and just over $50K on actual campaigning this cycle. This means that Black’s GOP challenger Hal Jordan has not had to face the full-brunt of a speaker’s political might. And it also begins to explain the lack of Jim Black campaign signs I mentioned yesterday.
Going forward, this spending on legal bills should convince anyone that campaign money is legal defense fund money and vice versa. Contributors to legal defense funds, such as Jim Black’s, should always be disclosed. There is just no reason not to.
