Troy King on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County Circuit Court seeking a restraining order to prevent the Steve Marshall campaign from using campaign donations it received from the Republican Attorneys General Association.
King has previously filed an ethics complaint over the donations, claiming that they violate Alabama’s ban on political action committees (PACs) transferring funds to other PACs — a tactic used to obscure or outright hide the source of political donations being given to politicians.
Marshall’s campaign has dismissed King’s accusations and maintain that the donations are legal. It cites comments from Alabama Ethics Commission director Tom Albritton in a recent news story in which he said the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office has said the state can’t enforce its laws on out-of-state PACs.
However, Albritton told al.com last month that he has informed other campaigns that taking donations from federal-level PACs that participate in PAC-to-PAC transfers would be illegal.
As King notes in his court filing, the Alabama law banning such transfers, which was put in place in 2010, specifically addresses out-of-state PACs and includes them in the ban.
A hearing on King’s filing will be held on Thursday in Circuit Court Judge James Anderson’s courtroom.
