Vice President Mike Pence has chosen not to use an allied political committee to pay for the private attorney he retained last week to represent him in the special counsel probe of Trump associates’ ties to Russia, two people close to Mr. Pence said Wednesday.
Last week, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the vice president would most likely use funds raisedthrough a leadership PAC created earlier this year to pay for his legal bills.
At that point, Mr. Pence had not been presented with the options for paying his legal bills, another person said. When he reviewed them, he decided he would not use the leadership PAC, called the Great America Committee.
It is not clear how Mr. Pence will pay his legal fees, which can be a daunting expense, especially for public officials of relatively limited means.
A financial disclosure Mr. Pence released last year appeared to show a negative net worth, not counting his state pension or his residence. He reported no significant savings accounts, mutual funds or 401(k) accounts from before he entered elected office. As Indiana’s governor, he was paid $173,860 over the previous year, the disclosure showed.
According to Nicholas and Ballhaus Pence's staff hasn't helped to clear up the question of how Pence will pay his legal fees:
The vice president’s office declined to comment on whether Mr. Pence will pay for his attorney out of his own pocket. Mr. Pence won’t use taxpayer funds to cover the fees incurred by his lawyer, Richard Cullen of McGuireWoods, a spokesman for his office said.
Indy Republican is wondering if taxpayers aren't going to pay Cullen, and PAC donations won't. Then how in the hell is Cullen going to be paid?
Using PAC donations to pay Cullen is legal. But perhaps there is another reason why Pence would be wary of using PAC money.
Nicholas and Ballhaus state:
It would be legal to pay for a personal attorney with funds raised by a leadership PAC. Yet such an action would potentially expose the vice president to criticism that he is tapping well-heeled donors to pay for his legal team.
This would not be the first time that "Pampered" Pence would have faced criticism of his use of donors money. Back in 1990 during a failed congressional campaign against democratic congressman Phil Sharp. It was revealed that Pence had used campaign money to pay many of his personal expenses.
The New York Daily News reported on this back in July. Rosalind Helderman, Tom Hamburger, and Alice Crites writing for the New York Daily News on July 15, 2016 reported:
Mike Pence was a young lawyer on the rise, challenging a longtime Democratic congressman in a Republican-leaning Indiana district.
And then, scandal.
Campaign finance records from the 1990 effort showed that Pence, then 31, had been using political donations to pay the mortgage on his house, his personal credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees and car payments for his wife.
The spending had not been illegal at the time. But it stunned voters — and undermined Pence’s strategy to portray the incumbent, Rep. Philip R. Sharp, as tainted by donations from special-interest political action committees.
“It was a brazen act of hypocrisy,” said Billy Linville, who was Sharp’s campaign manager. “It was a bombshell, for sure. . . . Without question, he may well have won the election if it had not been for that.”
Pence’s early stumble proved to be a defining moment, prompting a period of public remorse that helped create the wholesome image many Republicans now say makes him an ideal running mate to counterbalance the bombastic Donald Trump.
In the months after that 1990 defeat, Pence waged a statewide apology tour and disavowed negative campaigning. He told a local reporter that using campaign funds for personal expenses had been “an exercise in naivete.”
Pence’s 1990 race also led to key changes in campaign finance policies. Experts say that subsequent rules passed by the Federal Election Commission barring the use of campaign funds for personal needs were the direct result of ethics concerns raised by Pence’s actions.
Well it appears Mike Pence has at least one accomplishment to his name. His missteps in his 1990 campaign helped change federal election law!
It appears that Mike Pence is scared about being put under intense scrutiny. Pence has also been in the news lately because of the delays in finishing the extension of I-69. Click here and here for more information on the I-69 debacle. Pence may also start to face questions about whether he accurately reported the address of his residence when he ran for Governor of Indiana in 2012. See below his 2011 1040 tax return where he states that he and his wife lived in Arlington, Virginia:
Which if true means that he should have been deemed ineligible to run for Governor in 2012. Since Indiana law states that you must be a resident of Indiana for the five years preceding the election for governor. Which obviously would not be true if he was living in Arlington, Virginia in 2011!
So all this has us all wondering how in the world can Mike Pence have served a decade in congress and four years as governor and have so little in the way of assets to show for it? It just seems as if he should have more to his name by now. Also if the Vice President is doing everything above board. Why not simply say how he is going to pay his lawyer? It's a fair question. We thought we would leave you all with a little mailer that Pence did for his unsuccessful run for congress in 1988. It appears that Pence's wholesome image is as phony as he is judging by this mailer:
