Burlington, Vermont For Immediate Release 11/21/17:
Dean Corren today announced the dismissal of the Campaign Finance Act violation case brought against him by the VT Attorney General regarding his 2014 campaign for Lt. Governor.
This is the case in which former Attorney General William Sorrell had sought a $72,000 penalty for an email worth $255 sent out in October of 2014 by the Vermont Democratic Party.
The trial was scheduled for Dec. 7-8. Mr. Corren’s evidence at trial would have shown that:
- The Corren campaign offered 10 different times to pay the VDP for any support it gave the Corren campaign, including for this email both before and after it was sent out.
- In his zeal to prosecute Mr. Corren, Mr. Sorrell failed during his investigation of the alleged violation to interview Mr. Corren or his campaign staff. They included his attorney Dan Richardson (then President of the VT Bar Association), Sen. Chris Pearson (then state representative) who performed Campaign Finance compliance, and campaign manager Meg Polyte (now chief of staff for Lt. Governor David Zuckerman).
Mr. Corren described the settlement by saying “We achieved everything we wanted:
- The case is dropped.
- We get to pay $255 for the email as we originally planned but were prevented by the AG.
- The federal civil rights case we brought against the AG challenging specific unconstitutional aspects of the law and its enforcement will proceed at the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York.
- I did not agree to be silenced about this case.”
Corren further stated, “Mostly, I want to thank my wife Cindy for her strength to endure three stressful years and still persist, and our attorney John Franco, without whose brilliant, thorough, caring and dogged work we could not have prevailed.”
Mr. Franco is available for further comment at 802-874-7202.
Mr. Corren is available for further comment at 802-864-9916.
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Victory for Public Finance! 