{"id":48816,"date":"2021-02-11T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/home2\/judge-fines-tim-eyman-2-6-million-for-campaign-law-violations\/"},"modified":"2021-02-11T10:12:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T18:12:07","slug":"judge-fines-tim-eyman-2-6-million-for-campaign-law-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/northwest\/judge-fines-tim-eyman-2-6-million-for-campaign-law-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge fines Tim Eyman $2.6 million for campaign law violations"},"content":{"rendered":"

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s four-year legal pursuit of initiative promoter Tim Eyman ended Wednesday, Feb. 10, in a resounding win as a Thurston County judge hit the conservative activist with a $2.6 million fine for repeated violations of state law and restrictions on his role in ballot measure campaigns in the future.<\/p>\n

Superior Court Judge James Dixon levied the multi-million dollar penalty after finding Eyman illegally moved money between initiative campaigns in 2012, engineered a $308,000 kickback from a signature-gathering firm involved in those initiatives and failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions.<\/p>\n

The judge described the violations as “particularly egregious” and “were intentional efforts to conceal, deceive and mislead … and had a significant and material impact” on the public’s ability to know who was financing the initiative campaigns.<\/p>\n

It is the largest campaign finance penalty ever levied in Washington against a single individual, according to state attorneys.<\/p>\n

Dixon’s order<\/a> also permanently bans Eyman from directing financial transactions for any political committees and requires him to form a political committee to fund his future activist endeavors — two restrictions sought by Ferguson.<\/p>\n

“This is a complete and total victory for the state of Washington,” Ferguson said. “The evidence was overwhelming. It is my hope that today’s decision will focus Mr. Eyman’s mind on following the rules.”<\/p>\n

Eyman continued to deny any wrongdoing Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“I am absolutely certain that I did not violate any law,” he said. “This decision was not based on the law or the Constitution. This was based on giving the attorney general what he wanted.”<\/p>\n

As for the fine, Eyman, who filed for bankruptcy<\/a> in 2018, said, “Why not make it $80 million? It doesn’t matter. I don’t have it.”<\/p>\n

Eyman has already been paying the state $10,000 a month for fines accrued for contempt-of-court violations in the case. That amount will soon rise to $13,000, Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

“It is going to take awhile,” he said. “But he’s going to pay it.”<\/p>\n