The Federal Elections Commission has cleared former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign of wrongly using his campaign funds to defend himself from allegations that a Texas company tried to funnel money to the then-Senator.
The FEC decision, made public by the press office Wednesday, closed a late December complaint made by the Democratic-friendly Alliance for a Better Minnesota. In a 5-0 vote taken over the summer, the election commission found there was no reason to believe Coleman violated campaign finance laws.
Coleman told the commission at the time that he had not spent any campaign funds in his defense and later asked the FEC for permission to pay for any legal fees related to the lawsuits from his campaign donations.
The commission granted him limited permission to do so in June.
Both of the original allegations were contained in lawsuits, which have since been withdrawn. The suits, one in Texas and one in Delaware, alleged a friend and Coleman benefactor tried to forward $100,000 to Senator through his wife's employer.
Coleman has strongly denied the allegations as has the benefactor, Nasser Kazeminy.
