MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A Republican lawyer who has led the charge of criticisms about alleged campaign finance abuses by Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell added to his list of complaints Wednesday.
Brady Toensing, who lives in Charlotte and is vice chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, filed an amendment to a complaint he submitted last month questioning the Democrat Sorrell’s conduct in several respects.
Much of the “superseding complaint,” sent to the new Vermont State’s Attorneys Campaign Finance Investigation Committee, provides further evidence relating to the accusations Toensing first lobbed at Sorrell on April 20.
A new element is that Sorrell was using Burlington lawyer Richard Cassidy as his personal attorney in January 2013 at around the same time Cassidy was negotiating with the attorney general’s office for another client.
Toensing said in an interview that was a conflict of interest. “How can General Sorrell receive legal advice from someone who’s also an adversary of the state?” he asked.
Asked Wednesday if he saw a conflict of interest, Sorrell said, “No. It’s a small bar in the state of Vermont. I don’t know of a law firm of any size in the state that isn’t involved with the state, with our office.”
Cassidy did not immediately respond to an email or a message left at his office.
Sorrell would not comment on whether Cassidy had provided legal service to him for free. The question was raised by Toensing, who would not say who was paying for his legal services.
Toensing’s earlier complaint involved multiple allegations, including that:
- Sorrell, attorney general since 1997, coordinated during a hard-fought 2012 primary campaign with a political committee he maintained was independent. The committee, Citizens for Justice and Fairness, was set up by the Democratic Attorneys General Association and spent more than $190,000 on advertising to help Sorrell overcome a challenge from Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan.
- Sorrell improperly accounted for campaign expenditures during his campaigns by paying for them out-of-pocket and then reporting reimbursements to himself, without providing the required details on where the money went.
- Sorrell took campaign contributions from a Texas law firm and shortly thereafter signed the state of Vermont up as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against companies that firm was suing.
Working with the state’s attorneys’ committee, Gov. Peter Shumlin on May 8 appointed former state Rep. Thomas Little of Shelburne to investigate the allegations against Sorrell.
The appointment followed an extraordinary meeting of the Senate Government Operations Committee at which Sorrell called for an independent counsel to handle a campaign finance investigation that normally would be handled by the attorney general. “I can’t investigate myself,” he said.
On Wednesday, Sorrell said he did not want to comment on Toensing’s allegations in detail.
“I’m not going to always comment when he does whatever,” Sorrell said. “I’m pleased that Tom Little has been appointed to do a fair and impartial investigation. I look forward to cooperating fully with that investigation and seeing that justice is done.”
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