Ironic twist: Mike Sanders sought to pay legal fees out of same campaign fund he looted
People give money to help politicians get elected. But what if a Missouri politician used those campaign donations to, say, pay legal fees to defend himself against criminal charges that he spent donors’ money illegally?
The particularly ironic — some have called it appalling — legal interpretation that the money could be used this way was established after former Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders hired an attorney to look into it. The Missouri Ethics Commission’s advisory opinion giving the OK arrived in late October, 10 days before Sanders arrived at the federal prison camp in Yankton, S.D., to become federal inmate 32936-045.
At the center of this previously untold story is a certain $435,000 plus change that is sitting idle in the bank accounts of the Sanders for Jackson County campaign committee.
According to Missouri campaign finance laws, the committee should have been terminated in December because Sanders was no longer seeking public office. Its funds should have been donated to any number of authorized recipients, such as a political party or a charity.
Read more: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article225915775.html#navlink=SecList