JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri taxpayers have footed a more than $500,000 legal bill after the state attorney general lost a case defending a new campaign finance law.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday attorneys fighting against the law on behalf of two lobbying groups were paid roughly $508,000 in taxpayer dollars in legal fees after winning the case.
Part of a 2016, voter-approved campaign finance law banned campaign contributions between political action committees.
Attorney Chuck Hatfield represented the Association of Missouri Electrical Cooperatives in a lawsuit to overturn the ban. Todd Graves represented the American Democracy Alliance.
They won. Federal judges ruled that the ban violated free speech laws . U.S. District Court Senior Judge Ortrie Smith in April ordered the state to pay the attorneys’ as much as $575-an-hour legal fees
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