Outgoing Utah Lawyer Normal Sean Reyes continued a sample of lavish journey and high-value occasions final 12 months, utilizing marketing campaign funds for dozens of airline tickets, reserving stays at a bunch of motels and paying for a number of out of doors adventures. free, together with one other journey to hunt wild pigs. from helicopters in Texas.
The embattled Republican, who introduced final month that he wouldn’t search re-election, spent a complete of $426,338 from marketing campaign coffers in 2023, of which at the least $173,577 went on journey and motels, lodging and occasion house, in accordance with his newest marketing campaign finance disclosure. offered on Wednesday.
The report displays the extreme donor-funded journey schedule he maintained within the two years because the begin of his present time period in 2021, during which he made at the least 30 campaign-funded journeys to Europe, Mexico and all through the US.
The marketing campaign paid for a number of six-figure occasions final 12 months at luxurious locations in Deer Valley and elsewhere, totaling $106,642. A lot of them are listed as fundraisers. He additionally paid for a number of luxurious journey reservations, snowmobiling excursions, huge recreation searching journeys and a limousine journey in March value $1,250.
Reyes, as he did in 2022, additionally bought seats on a helicopter searching journey in Texas to shoot animals from the sky, this time with Brazos River Helicopters, an organization primarily based in Haskell, Texas. That Could journey, information present, value at the least $four,209.
As a part of a state depredation program, the West Texas helicopter firm affords aerial searching of feral hogs and coyotes, in addition to livestock herding, wildlife seize, images and reconnaissance, in accordance with its web site.
His report included $6,000 paid to an organization listed as “Hill Outfitters” in Could; one other $1,647 the identical month to Crimson Pine Adventures, which does horseback driving and snowmobiling in Park Metropolis; and $2,422 in June for Avventure Collective, which does out of doors snowboarding, rafting and different excursions in a number of states and international locations.
Reyes’ high marketing campaign marketing consultant, Alan Crooks, didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the most recent filings.
In November, Crooks defended Reyes’ donor-funded journey, saying it didn’t replicate any diversion of consideration by Utah’s high regulation enforcement official from his duties and obligations within the Beehive State.
Crooks, whose Salt Lake Metropolis-based firm Complete Strategic Options obtained $68,870 from Reyes final 12 months, additionally known as the lawyer normal’s intensive journey “good for Utah” for magnifying Reyes’ skill “to get issues executed.”
For the reason that starting of 2020, Reyes has paid Crooks’ firm $537,994.
The marketing campaign paid three corporations a complete of $160,518 in consulting, accounting and help providers in 2023, the stories point out, and virtually $998,500 from the start of 2020 to the top of final 12 months.
How the fuss began
Burdened in current months by scandals involving his buddy Tim Ballard, luxurious marketing campaign journeys and practices of his nonprofit group, Reyes introduced in early December that he wouldn’t search re-election this 12 months.
He was appointed lawyer normal in 2013 following alleged misconduct during which his two predecessors have been charged with, however by no means convicted of, a number of severe crimes. Reyes is now the third consecutive Utah lawyer normal to depart workplace below a cloud.
In September, Reyes vowed to hunt one other time period as Utah’s high regulation enforcement officer and supplied his help to Ballard, founding father of the anti-child trafficking nonprofit Operation Underground Railroad and focus of the hit movie “Sound of Freedom.” ”
Ballard has since been accused of sexual assault by a number of ladies, resulting in his expulsion from OUR, a sequence of lawsuits and at the least two prison investigations.
In November, the Utah Legislature launched a sweeping audit of Reyes’ workplace, together with his relationship with Ballard. The Salt Lake Tribune report additionally highlighted dozens of campaign-funded journeys over the span of three years and questionable fundraising practices at Reyes’ nonprofit, the Liberate All Worth All Basis.
The issues have renewed requires the governor to nominate the lawyer normal. In the meantime, 9 candidates have filed to run later this 12 months to fill the place.
‘Public belief decreases’
These newest disclosures replicate journey and bills paid solely with marketing campaign donations. They don’t embrace journey funded by taxpayers or different events.
The Tribune filed an open information request final fall to acquire Reyes’ official calendar and get a extra full image of the lawyer normal’s travels, however the workplace denied that request and a subsequent attraction.
KSL-TV additionally sought Reyes’ calendar, and after the State Information Committee dominated it ought to be public, the lawyer normal’s workplace sued to dam the discharge. The Tribune has filed a quick supporting the discharge of information from that case.
Utah marketing campaign finance legal guidelines prohibit spending on “private use bills,” that means people who promote a private curiosity that’s “unrelated to the efficiency of an exercise as a candidate or an exercise or obligation of an official.”
Crooks has mentioned the Reyes marketing campaign devoted donor solely to marketing campaign actions, and that included journey, airfare and resort stays, in addition to fundraising occasions, convention attendance and advocacy on behalf of constituents.
However even when lavish marketing campaign spending is authorized, mentioned Kedric Payne, senior ethics director on the Marketing campaign Authorized Heart, a nonpartisan group primarily based in Washington, it undermines the democratic course of.
“Seeing the regulation truly enable somebody to learn from a donor to that extent diminishes public confidence,” Payne mentioned, “as a result of the general public thinks there could also be a possible battle of curiosity with the life-style that donors help and official motion. they might need from that elected individual.”
Beforehand, at the least one lawmaker, state Sen. Mike McKell, questioned whether or not Reyes’ marketing campaign journey leaves him sufficient time to decide to his obligations to Utah taxpayers.
“It’s atrocious,” the Spanish Fork Republican mentioned in November, “that the lawyer normal of the state of Utah, in a non-election 12 months, can spend virtually half one million from his marketing campaign account to journey around the globe doing issues random. “That’s most likely not related to his job as lawyer normal.”
Newest report lacks key particulars
As he did in 2021 and 2022, Reyes recurrently rented house final 12 months at Mac’s Place, a members-only membership in Salt Lake Metropolis, in addition to coworking areas operated by Regus Administration, a nationwide chain.
The 2023 report reveals that Reyes once more attended what are often called Dialog Retreats, elite closed-door discussions with enterprise and know-how leaders created by billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, as he has executed in earlier years.
The lawyer normal attended at the least three of the unique occasions final 12 months, judging by associated bills in June, October and, three days earlier than saying he wouldn’t search one other time period, in December.
Nonetheless, these spending disclosures, which observe a November Tribune report on lavish home and worldwide journeys and greater than 30 stays at luxurious resorts in earlier years, omit key particulars the marketing campaign has included in earlier stories.
In 2022, Dialog Retreats took Reyes to Santa Barbara, California, and to an expensive resort in an unique suburb of Lisbon, Portugal. For 2023, nevertheless, the stories omit full resort names and different data.
The revelations additionally seem to point out that Reyes spent $568 final Could on “provides” at a clothes retailer. Utah marketing campaign regulation explicitly prohibits the acquisition of clothes except the merchandise have the candidate’s brand and are used for marketing campaign functions.
The marketing campaign doled out about $5,000 within the weeks after Reyes mentioned he would go away workplace when his time period expired, together with funds totaling $three,644 to Crooks’ consulting agency and the remainder in month-to-month charges and subscriptions.
Reyes’ marketing campaign final 12 months subscribed to Barron’s, The New York Instances, The Wall Avenue Journal, The Epoch Instances and The Salt Lake Tribune, in accordance with the disclosures.
The lawyer normal continued a follow of self-reimbursement from marketing campaign coffers for journey bills, as he revealed in his 2021 and 2022 stories. The marketing campaign reimbursed Reyes six occasions in 2023 for a complete of $28,802, with out particulars on how that cash was spent.
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