Associated Press: FEC levies $30K penalty tied to Kobach’s 2020 US Senate bid

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Incoming Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach agreed to help pay a $30,000 penalty to resolve a federal complaint over the improper use of a group’s email list during his unsuccessful 2020 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

The Federal Election Commission disclosed Friday that it had approved an agreement with Kobach, his U.S. Senate campaign committee, its treasurer and We Build the Wall — a group that raises money for a privately built wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Attorneys for Kobach’s campaign and We Build the Wall signed the agreement in early November — just days before Kobach was narrowly elected attorney general — and the commission approved it on Nov. 16, according to documents available online.

The agreement came more than three years after two watchdog groups, Common Cause and the Campaign Legal Center, filed formal complaints about a July 2019 fundraising email for Kobach’s U.S. Senate campaign. Kobach, who is a polarizing advocate of tough immigration measures, lost the Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat in August 2020.