News & Observer: Senators are helping pay Sen. Burr’s legal expenses. Here’s a closer look at the donors
News & Observer: Senators are helping pay Sen. Burr’s legal expenses. Here’s a closer look at the donors
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is getting help paying his expensive legal bills related to a Department of Justice investigation for stock sales — and a lot of that assistance is coming from his Senate colleagues, according to documents filed with the Senate.
The North Carolina Republican has used donations from his fellow senators’ leadership committees to pay mounting legal expenses throughout 2021 as his own campaign account has dwindled. …
“In my view, it’s the least troubling of the money,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause. ‘I am far more concerned seeing people with business before Burr’s committees than I am seeing money from other members of Congress.” …
Burr is the top Republican on the Senate’s health, education, labor and pensions (HELP) committee. He also serves on the intelligence, finance and aging committees.
Several prominent North Carolinians also contributed, including Erskine Bowles, a former White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton, former UNC System president and Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2004, when he was defeated by Burr.
Other donors from North Carolina include: Dale Jenkins, longtime CEO of a Raleigh insurance company; Felix Sabates, a NASCAR team owner; Paul Fulton, a former member of the UNC System Board of Governors; and John Burress, a businessman and philanthropist.
Albert Hegyi, CEO of 1st Financial Bank USA and a big Republican donor, contributed $10,000 on Feb. 8, the first day the trust fund received donations. Sabates, Fulton, Burress and Hegyi have donated to Burr’s campaigns in the past, according to FEC reports.
“There’s heightened concern of fundraising into a legal expense fund by a member of Congress not running for reelection,” Ryan said. “… The threat for corruption or, at a minimum, the appearance of corruption is greater when it comes to $10,000 contributions for a legal expenses fund for an individual who is leaving office in 18 months.”