FLORIDA - Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley is using leftover campaign cash to pay for the huge legal bills he's racking up defending himself in the congressional page scandal that led to his resignation.
Foley spent $206,000 in campaign cash on attorneys from November to January, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. That left about $1.7 million in the Florida Republican's campaign account March 31, even after he returned more than $110,000 from donors.
"Many congressmen, when they resign, they keep the money and do good things with it. But paying for your legal bills? I don't think so," said Robert Starr, chairman of the Charlotte County Republican Party.
The FEC has ruled in other cases that such expenditures generally are lawful.
"I got my 500 bucks back. ... I gave him money because I believed in him. It's not that way anymore," Starr said.
Foley's criminal defense attorney, David Roth, declined comment Thursday. A telephone message left with the Washington-based law firm that got all the legal payments from Foley's campaign account was not immediately returned.
Foley resigned from Congress in September after being confronted with sexually explicit Internet communications to male pages who had worked on Capitol Hill. Soon after, he checked himself into an Arizona facility for what his attorneys said was for treatment of "alcoholism and other behavioral problems."
His attorneys at the time announced Foley was gay and alleged he had been molested by a priest as a teenage altar boy. They maintain Foley never had inappropriate sexual contact with minors.
State and federal authorities continue to investigate whether Foley broke any laws through some explicit communications with minors.
from The Associated Press
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