Reports Show More Payments to Lathrop: Blunt Still Paying Up After Lawyering Up?

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission finance report made available this week, Matt Blunt's re-election committee paid "legal fees" to Kansas City-based firm Lathrop & Gage totaling $8,546.11 in December 2006. This follows "legal expenses" payments to Lathrop & Gage listed on the previous report in the amount of $11,616.

Press accounts of Blunt's hiring of a criminal defense attorney in the fee office matter have suggested that the previous payments to Lathrop, made in August 2006, may have been passed through to William Mateja of Dallas firm Fish & Richardson. Mateja had made calls to U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins about the status of the Missouri fee office investigation. Cummins' description of those calls indicated that Matt Blunt was Mateja's "client."

Neither the Governor's office nor Missourians for Matt Blunt has ever answered the question of whether the "legal" fees paid by the campaign to Lathrop & Gage were paid to compensate Attorney Mateja for his work defending Blunt's interests in the fee office investigation. The repeated appearance of unexplained "legal fees" on his most recent finance report should bring renewed calls upon Governor Blunt to explain how those dollars were spent.

As has been suggested on these pages before, Blunt may well have circumvented or contravened Missouri law with regard to how campaign funds may be spent. If indeed the campaign's legal expenditures from August and December of 2006 were made in order to exonerate Blunt's personal legal interests, those expenditures may well represent $20,000 misappropriated from the campaign.

Understandably, Matt Blunt has tried to evade responsibility for answering questions regarding the fee office investigation and his retention of a criminal defense expert in that case. Allowing him to do so, particularly in light of newly emerging campaign "legal" expenses, is not understandable. Governor Blunt and his campaign must be called to account.