LITTLE ROCK – A top deputy at the Arkansas treasurer’s office will return to work Thursday after an internal investigation of campaign-related emails sent while he was a lobbyist for a charity showed no wrongdoing, an office spokesman said.
Treasurer’s office spokesman Grant Wallace confirmed Wednesday that the internal investigation had been closed and that Deputy Chief of Staff Jason Brady would return to work. Republican state Treasurer Dennis Milligan had placed Brady on paid leave Friday to allow his office to review the matter.
“Let me stress, nothing tied to this issue has anything to do with Brady while he has been a state employee. He has not violated any state laws or ethical guidelines while employed in my office. This issue is about what he did or did not do while he was as a private citizen in the private sector,” Milligan wrote in an emailed statement.
Arkansas News Bureau first reported Sunday about the emails sent in 2013 and 2014 to Milligan’s campaign from Brady’s email address at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, where he was a lobbyist. The nonprofit cannot engage in political activity.
Milligan said his staff had a hard time verifying the authenticity of the emails because his campaign had closed its email accounts shortly after the November election to avoid having to continue paying for them. He said it appeared at least one of the emails provided to reporters had been changed from its original form.
In one of Brady’s emails, he requested reimbursement of about $300, but also asked that his name not be included on a campaign finance report. Milligan said Wednesday that Brady was reimbursed by a third-party vendor hired to manage the campaign’s Facebook page because the expenditure was done on its behalf.
“He turned the bills over to and was reimbursed by the vendor. Those expenditures were included in the vendor’s bill submitted to my campaign, paid for with campaign funds and reported on my campaign expenditure and contribution reports,” Milligan wrote.
Ray Carson, the associate director of media advocacy for ACSCAN for the South region, said the nonprofit is conducting an internal review.
“We have a very strict internal policy in regard to electioneering,” he said. “Our employees are educated on a regular basis on that policy, and we take that policy very seriously.”
Milligan said if the society makes a determination that there was a misuse of its resources, he would “make them whole.”
“We cannot see where any campaign or ethics laws were violated, maybe only an internal company policy of ACSCAN,” he wrote.
Graham Sloan, director of the Arkansas Ethics Commission, wouldn’t comment on the specific situation involving Brady but said in general that loans are considered contributions under Arkansas campaign finance law. He said if someone pays for something on behalf of a campaign and expects to get reimbursed, that action is defined as a loan and it should be reported under the person’s name.
(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.)
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