Judge fines Eyman $2.6 million, bars him from managing political committee finances
A Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that longtime anti-tax activist Tim Eyman violated campaign finance laws, putting donors’ contributions to personal use, and fined him $2.6 million.
Judge James Dixon also ruled that Eyman, who has led initiative campaigns across Washington for decades, will no longer be allowed to have any financial control over political committees.
Dixon announced his findings Wednesday in Thurston County Superior Court, bringing an end to the four-year-long case brought by the state Attorney General’s Office. Attorney General Bob Ferguson accused Eyman of intentionally hiding the source of political contributions, soliciting kickbacks, laundering donations and flouting campaign finance law in a long-running scheme to enrich himself.
In his verdict, Dixon ruled Eyman himself constitutes a “continuing political committee” under the law. As such, he has failed to file monthly campaign finance reports for years.
“Mr. Eyman’s violations of the Fair Campaign Practices Act are numerous and particularly egregious and were ‘intentional’ as that term is defined by law,” Dixon said.
The Fair Campaign Practices Act of 1972 created the Public Disclosure Commission which to this day provides public access to information on the financing of political campaigns and lobbying.
As a consequence for the violations, Dixon barred Eyman from “managing, controlling, negotiating or directing financial transactions for any political committee” as Ferguson had requested.
Such a verdict may have the effect of curtailing Eyman’s ability to continue running anti-tax initiatives that have impacted state and local government finances — a result that Eyman has argued may infringe on his First Amendment rights.
However, Ferguson had argued that the ruling doesn’t keep Eyman from promoting an initiative. And Dixon said the injunction should not stop Eyman from being involved in politics.
“Mr. Eyman can continue to be involved in the political process in a manner that is authorized by law,” Dixon said. “This has to comply with provisions of the Fair Campaign Practices Act and he hasn’t.”
The allegations brought up in this case echoed a similar case from 2002 in which Eyman admitted to campaign finance violations. Dixon recapped the results from that case Wednesday.
“(Eyman) stated that he had established a political action committee, Permanent Offense Inc., ‘to have a way to cover the fact that I was making money supporting initiatives and none of my co-sponsors knew that was the case,’” Dixon said.
As a result of the 2002 case, Dixon said Eyman was permanently barred from acting as a treasurer for a political action committee.
In response to the rulling, Eyman sent out a fundraising email on Thursday for his legal defense fund. However, given the recent rulling, Eyman said in the email a separate political committee with a treasurer will be set up to receive and distribute the donations.
“This whole things is completely crazy and that’s why it needs to be appealed,” Eyman wrote in the email. “With the entire weight and power of the government bearing down on us for 8 1/2 years, we’ve only withstood it thanks to the prayers, friendship, love, and support of thousands of great people who recognized this abuse of power and injustice and wanted to help us fight back.”
Ferguson issued a news release after the ruling.
“After years of Tim Eyman’s deceit, obstruction, and contempt of court, we took him to trial and held him accountable for receiving and concealing illegal kick-backs. After 20 years of violating campaign finance laws, including two previous judgments against him, Eyman’s day of reckoning has arrived,” he said in the statement.
“Today’s ruling is clear — Eyman’s conduct was illegal and intentional. Today’s historic campaign finance penalty — the largest in our state ever levied against an individual – is necessary to hold him accountable for some of the most egregious campaign finance violations ever uncovered by the Washington Public Disclosure Commission and the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 8:35 PM.
