Norm Coleman can use campaign donations to pay for some -- but not all -- of the legal fees he's amassing as a result of two lawsuits and an FBI investigation. | REUTERS FEC: Donors can't pay all Coleman bills

Norm Coleman can use campaign donations to pay for some — but not all — of the legal fees he’s amassing as a result of two lawsuits and an FBI investigation targeting one of his top donors.

That’s the conclusion Federal Election Commission lawyers reached in a pair of draft advisory opinions that the full commission is slated to consider Thursday.


The draft opinions reflect slightly different interpretations of the law, and the full commission on Thursday is slated to determine which it prefers. Either would be a mixed result for Coleman, a former Minnesota senator who has accumulated a mountain of legal bills since Election Day.

The bills stem from his lawsuit to overturn the results of his November loss to Democrat Al Franken (a decision from the Minnesota Supreme Court is expected imminently) and his monitoring of two lawsuits alleging that longtime confidant Nasser Kazeminy improperly steered cash to Coleman's wife, in addition to an alleged FBI investigation into Kazeminy.

Coleman, who is not a party to the lawsuits and has denied any wrongdoing in his relationship with Kazeminy, has asked donors for contributions to pay lawyers to contest the election and has asked the commission for permission to use campaign cash to pay legal bills stemming from the Kazeminy matters, as well.

Federal election law only allows politicians to use campaign cash to pay legal bills related to their positions as officeholders or candidates. And the FEC lawyers concluded that means Coleman can’t use donor cash to pay lawyers to represent him if the FBI inquiry delves into “allegations not directly related to his campaign or duties as a Federal officeholder.”

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The more restrictive of the two draft advisory opinions also bars him from using campaign cash to pay for legal bills related to the two Kazeminy suits.

Coleman’s “need for legal representation in the two lawsuits stems from his role as a potential witness. Senator Coleman’s obligation to serve as a witness would exist irrespective of his campaign or duties as a Federal officeholder,” the lawyers wrote. “Accordingly, the use of campaign funds to pay legal fees and expenses for representing Senator Coleman in the ... lawsuits, including the preservation of documents, would be an impermissible personal use.”

Nonetheless, he can use campaign cash to pay for 50 percent of the legal fees accrued from monitoring the two cases, the draft concludes.

The more permissive draft allows him to use campaign funds to represent him in the suits, while both allow him to use the money to respond to media inquiries about the lawsuits, the FBI investigation and related complaints with the Senate Ethics Committee.