OHIO HOUSE Legal fee payments questioned

The House speaker and two associates insist the payments were legal.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- State elections officials may be asked to look into payments of legal fees by House Speaker Larry Householder to a fund-raiser and a top political consultant.
"We're investigating the matter for a referral to the Ohio Elections Commission," Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, said Wednesday. "We believe that this may be yet another instance of using contract law to skirt campaign finance regulations."
Bill Wilkinson, one of Householder's attorneys, said Householder obtained opinions from three law firms before agreeing last spring that campaign finance laws permit payment of "reasonable" legal expenses incurred by his chief consultant, Brett Buerck, and fund-raiser Kyle Sisk as a result of federal and state investigations.
Federal probes
The FBI and IRS are investigating several allegations, including campaign finance irregularities and the misuse of corporate money.
Wilkinson said Buerck's and Sisk's contracts require the Citizens for Householder committee to indemnify them for all expenses resulting from legal proceedings being threatened or initiated "unless such threats or legal proceedings are solely the result of any act or failure to act" by the consultants.
"The matter has been reviewed by us and others, and it is our opinion it is proper," said Geoffrey Stern, an attorney for Buerck.
Sam B. Weiner, Sisk's attorney, also defended the payments.
"The indemnification was part of the negotiated terms of an arms-length contract," he said. "We are very confident of their legality and propriety."