After dodging calls and emails from reporters and ignoring urging from the DCCC, Congressman Erik Paulsen has finally decided to loosen his grip on a campaign donation he’s been holding onto from disgraced former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
It only took Hastert being sentenced to prison – and for a federal judge to call Hastert a “serial child molester” – for Paulsen to finally find his moral backbone. Here are all the opportunities Erik Paulsen missed to surrender this cash:
- May 2015: Hastert accused of lying to the FBI and ‘paying to hide misconduct’
- June 2015: Hastert pleads not guilty
- October 2015: Hastert reaches plea deal to admit wrongdoing
- April 7, 2016: Hastert accused of sexual abuse by at least 4 students
- April 25, 2016: Hastert abuse victim sues for $1.8 million
- April 28, 2016: Judge calls Hastert ‘serial child molester’, sentences him to 15 months
- May 2016: Turns out, allegations of abuse by Hastert have been around for years
Despite all this, when confronted by a reporter, Paulsen instructed his press secretary to hide from questions. According to City Pages, “repeated messages left Tuesday for his press secretary Drew Griffin went unreturned.”
“It’s shameful that it took a full year’s worth of allegations, plea deals, court hearings, and a prison sentence to shake this money loose from Erik Paulsen’s campaign coffers,” said Sacha Haworth of the DCCC. “Now that he’s in a tight race, Congressman Paulsen is clearly more concerned about his reelection prospects than what Minnesotans would think about him keeping campaign donations from a ‘serial child molester.’”