COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Republican Party paid $300,000 to the law firm involved with successfully keeping would-be Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl off last year's ballot, according to Ohio Elections Commission filings.

The payments, detailed by attorneys representing Gov. John Kasich's re-election campaign and GOP activist Terry Casey, came after Republican Party Chair Matt Borges denied in federal court last year that his party was behind the challenge to Earl's candidacy.

Casey and Kasich's campaign brought up the payments as evidence that Kasich's re-election campaign did not collude to disqualify Earl, as the Libertarian alleges in an elections commission complaint.

According to separate motions filed earlier this month by Casey and Kasich's campaign, the Ohio Republican Party made three separate payments to the law firm of Zeiger, Tigges and Little between November 2014 and February of this year.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges

Those payments were documented on campaign finance reports submitted to the Ohio secretary of state's office.

When the Libertarians filed a federal lawsuit to try to force Earl's name on the ballot, Borges testified in March 2014 that the party did not pay any money to fund the pair's cases.

"Anyone who's looking for the conspiracy behind it - it's just not there," he said at the time.

State GOP spokesman Chris Schrimpf confirmed in an email that after Earl's federal case was dismissed, Borges "was approached about assisting with a large legal bill."

Schrimpf wrote that the "party happily agreed to help pay the bill for the case" at Borges' request, as the court case involved "Ohio Democrats being caught conspiring inappropriately."

"The chairman was never involved in this matter from the beginning but is glad that it concluded in embarrassing the Ohio Democrats," Schrimpf stated.

Schrimpf did not immediately return emails asking what he meant by Democrats "conspiring inappropriately," nor did he reply to questions seeking clarification about Borges' involvement.

The spokesman also didn't say whether Borges or other state GOP officials had an understanding at the time of Borges' testimony that the party would eventually cover the legal fees.

Zeiger, Tigges and Little represented Gregory A. Felsoci, a registered Libertarian who challenged Earl's candidacy because of invalid petition signatures.

Casey, a former Kasich staffer who arranged for Felsoci to challenge Earl's petitions, stated in his motion that he made no arrangements with anyone about paying the legal bills until a U.S. District Court ruled against Earl's case in October 2014.

From the start, Felsoci "understood that he would not be responsible for paying" the legal fees from the case, the motion stated.

Only after Kasich won re-election in November 2014, Casey's motion stated, did he discuss with Borges about paying the law firm.

The state GOP's executive committee then made an initial $100,000 payment to Zeiger, Tigges and Little in mid-November, followed by $150,000 in late December and $50,000 in February of 2015, according to Casey's motion and state records.

Earl filed a complaint with the elections commission last month claiming that the legal bills that Casey racked up constituted an illegal "in-kind" contribution to Kasich's campaign. Earl's complaint argues that Kasich's campaign should pay a minimum $720,000 fine.

The commission is set to hear the complaint on Thursday.

When Felsoci filed his complaint against Earl last year, many Republicans worried that the Libertarian ex-lawmaker would siphon conservative votes away from Kasich, potentially helping Democrat Ed FitzGerald win if the race was close.

A Democratic Party-supported organization called Ohioans for Liberty paid $12,000 to organize and collect petition signatures for Earl and other Libertarian candidates, according to a federal court ruling.

Kasich ended up winning the election handily, as FitzGerald's campaign was marred by controversy.

Terry Casey's motion, filed with the Ohio Elections Commission:

Gov. John Kasich's campaign motion, filed with the elections commission: