Did Blunt Violate Ethics and Theft Laws by Using Campaign Cash to Hire a Private Criminal Defense Attorney?

The Post-Dispatch details today the hiring of a private attorney to represent Matt Blunt before a federal prosecutor.  The story strongly suggests that Blunt's campaign committee paid for the private lawyer.  Here is the relevant passage:

[Blunt's Office] identified the lawyer making the calls on Blunt's behalf as Bill Mateja, a lawyer with Fish & Richardson, a firm based in Dallas and Washington. Mateja was hired by the Kansas City-based firm of Lathrop & Gage, which has been used by Blunt's campaign for various legal matters.

Mateja was hired "to research the rumors that were being spread by our political opponents and the press," Chrismer said.

The campaign's last financial report, filed in October, reported $11,616 paid to Lathrop & Gage for "legal expenses." It's unclear whether that includes payments to Mateja.

If Blunt used campaign cash to pay his personal criminal defense lawyer, then he has violated state ethics and theft law. State law prohibits converting campaign contributions to personal use.  Since Blunt's legal troubles don't center on what he did as a candidate, he should be paying his own criminal defense bills. 

Over the past several months, various elected officials have been fined or prosecuted for stealing money from their campaigns by converting it to personal use. 

Blunt's campaign should immediately release all of its legal bills.  Missourians deserve to know if their Governor has converted campaign cash to personal use in violation of the law.