Louisana: Vitter wants to use campaign funds to pay legal bills related to hookers
The Times-Picayune reports on why being pol is such a great gig -- if you get into trouble, other people pay your legal bills: Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is asking the Federal Election Commission whether he can use campaign money to pay fees related to legal issues and bad publicity he confronted after being linked to a prostitution ring.
The letter from a Vitter attorney mentions $207,177.50 in costs, mostly legal fees, $70,000 of which the senator already has paid with his own money. The letter indicates that some of the money relates to legal representation before the Senate Ethics Committee that is "not the subject" of the request to the FEC.
As of March 31, Vitter listed $1.6 million in cash on hand in his campaign account. His office declined to comment on the FEC request.
In the letter Thursday to the FEC, Washington lawyer Jan Witold Baran wrote that the bills came about after Vitter's phone number appeared on the client list of an escort service operated by Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Baran said Palfrey tried to generate publicity by "targeting her subpoenas to well-known public officials" such as Vitter and a deputy U.S. secretary of state. -- Vitter hopes war chest can pay legal bills- NOLA.com