? Gov. Sam Brownback’s office confirmed Wednesday that federal prosecutors have declined to file charges stemming from Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer’s loans last year to Brownback’s re-election campaign.

“We have been advised by legal counsel that the United States Attorney’s office has concluded an investigation regarding campaign finance matters, and no charges are to be filed,” Brownback and Colyer said in a joint statement released around 1:40 p.m.

“As we have stated many times, our campaign finances were conducted in full compliance with applicable law and ethics regulations. We will have no further statements regarding this concluded matter,” the statement said.

During the 2014 re-election campaign, Colyer made three loans of $500,000 each to the campaign. Each one was made just before the deadline for filing campaign finance reports.

The first was made over the New Year’s holiday. On Dec. 31, 2013, the closing day of the 2013 reporting period, Colyer loaned the campaign $500,000.

That loan made it look as though Brownback had raised $1.6 million during 2013, well ahead of his presumed Democratic challenger at the time, Rep. Paul Davis of Lawrence, who had raised just over $1 million since officially entering the race earlier that year.

What wasn’t disclosed until the end of the next reporting period in July was that the loan was repaid the next business day, Jan. 2, 2014.

On July 23, 2014, one day before the cutoff of the next reporting period, Colyer made another $500,000 loan to the campaign. That made it look as though Brownback had raised $1.2 million in the January-July reporting period, slightly more than the $1.1 million Davis had raised during that same time frame.

In October, though, the campaign reported that the July loan had been repaid two days later, and that Colyer had made another $500,000 loan to the campaign on Aug. 13.

Sam and Mary Brownback also loaned $200,000 to the campaign in October.

The final, year-end report of the election cycle, which was filed Jan. 15, showed the campaign had repaid $400,000 of that final loan and that $100,000 was still outstanding.

News that a grand jury was investigating those transactions leaked to the news media Jan. 14 when Carol Williams, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, was subpoenaed to testify, and to bring with her: “any and all contracts or presentations between you, or any other member of the commission, pertaining to loans made to the Brownback for Governor Campaign in 2013 and 2014.”

Williams ended up not testifying before the grand jury.

“I find it interesting that the governor’s office, for the first time, acknowledged that there was an investigation,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said. “Up until now, they denied that an investigation was even going on. So at least they admitted that there was an investigation. But as to why the U.S. attorney’s office chose not to issue any indictments, I think, remains to be a mystery.”

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