The Democratic Party wants the Senate Ethics Committee to probe if $10 million in compensation that Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson received from his former company violated federal election law, The Hill reports.
Wisconsin is one of the key races where Democrats are seeking to defeat incumbent Republican senators in an attempt to wrest control of the upper house from the GOP in the elections.
The Republican Johnson is currently trailing Democratic candidate Russ Feingold by nearly 10 percentage points in the latest average of polls, according to RealClearPolitics.
In a letter the Democrats sent to the ethics committee, they claim the payment to Johnson was an attempt to bypass federal campaign rules, as corporations are not allowed to contribute directly to state or federal campaigns, the Hill reports.
"There is no evidence that PACUR [Johnson's former company] had a preexisting policy, with objective criteria, to determine whether executives would receive compensation upon their departure or the amount of that compensation," the letter stated.
Johnson campaign spokesman Brian Reisinger told the Hill that the senator followed the law and that the entire episode is an attempt by the Democrats "to distract from [Feingold's] wide-open email scandal with the State Department over allegations he broke federal law with his shadow campaign. [He] is failing to prove he hasn't broken the law, and meantime is hiding behind the State Department, just like Hillary Clinton."
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