Jan 17, 2006 -- Federal Judge Grants Attorneys Fees in Case Against FEC

Washington-- A federal court last week took the highly unusual step of awarding attorney's fees to attorneys suing the Federal Election Commission for its failure to act on a complaint first filed in 2000.

In a decision issued on January 13, U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates granted a request by the Campaign Legal Center for $17, 343.67 in legal fees associated with the Legal Center's representation of the Kean for Congress Committee in its suit against the FEC. The judge also granted $7,862.67 for reasonable litigation expenses, and held open the possibility of also granting attorneys' fees to Kimberly Brown, a lawyer at the Washington firm Caplin & Drysdale who also represented plaintiffs in the case.

"The court's decision to grant attorney's fees should send a signal to the Commission that its failure to prosecute legitimate complaints of illegal conduct will not be tolerated," said Trevor Potter, the Legal Center's president and general counsel and a former FEC commissioner and chairman." The CLC stands ready to intervene if the Commission does not do its job, and the federal courts will hold the Commission accountable, as they properly did here."

In 2004, the Campaign Legal Center filed the second of two lawsuits seeking to overturn the FEC's inaction in a complaint filed in 2000 by the Kean for Congress Committee against a "stealth PAC" 527 organization known as the "Council for Responsible Government" or "CRG." The group funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into efforts to defeat Kean in his race for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000. Legal Center alleged on Kean's behalf that the group's major purpose was to influence a federal election, and was therefore required by law to register as a political committee and adhere to federal rules forbidding the use of soft money in federal elections.

In 2003, the FEC's General Counsel concluded that the 527 group should have registered and reported as a federal political committee because its "major purpose" was to support and oppose federal candidates, arguing that "there is no indication that [CRG] had engaged in any other type of activity." The FEC deadlocked 3-3 on the Counsel's recommendation, however, and took no action against the group. The lawsuit, filed by the Kean committee in federal district court, sought judicial review of the FEC's failure to act, a finding by the Court that the refusal to proceed by three FEC commissioners was "arbitrary and capricious," and a reversal of the FEC's action by the Court.

According to the just-released documents in the case, the FEC's General Counsel found that CRG "appears to be a political committee" and thus should have registered with and reported to the FEC as a federal political committee, and that they violated the prohibitions on spending corporate funds in federal elections and failed to report an independent expenditure. (See pages 9 and 12 of the factual and legal analysis). The Commission itself approved a finding of these violations "in the alternative" in the conciliation agreement.

The released documents reflected that the FEC had reached a conciliation agreement with CRG requiring them to pay $5,500 in fines to the agency. The FEC's investigation also showed that U.S. Term Limits paid for the printing and mailing of the illegal ads that were taken out against Tom Kean, Jr.

To read documents in the case, please click here.
Click here to view all Plaintiff's filings.
Click here to view all Defendant's court filings.

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