Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne faces a hearing before an administrative law judge today. Horne has been accused of violating campaign finance laws in his 2010 election.
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk determined there was evidence Horne coordinated a campaign commercial with the head of an independent campaign committee, which paid for the commercial.
But Horne’s attorney Michael Kimerer calls the evidence of an in kind contribution to his campaign, “circumstantial and coincidental.”
“I think it stretches the imagination, regardless of the sequence of the calls or the timing, that you just automatically have to assume they're talking about this particular ad,” Kimerer said.
Kimerer says evidence exists to show there is more reason to think the pair was talking about a real estate deal they had been working on than the commercial. Horne is expected to take the stand to explain what happened, but since the case is a civil matter, Horne will not be able to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.