On June 8, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero of the Central District of California granted O’Donnell’s motion to dismiss charges that he allegedly reimbursed employees of his law firm and other individuals for giving $26,000 in campaign contributions to a committee supporting a presidential candidate, believed to be former U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.). O’Donnell had claimed that the section of the Federal Election Campaign Act under which he was charged does not criminally sanction the reimbursement of contributions or indirect contributions.
“Indeed, it appears that if Congress intended [the statute] to apply to indirect contributions, or contributions made through a conduit or intermediary, it would have included explicit language, as it did in other sections of the same statute,” Otero said.
