FEC Closes Inquiries on Gingrich, Rep. Kim and Oklahoma Donors

Cleaning out cases it deemed “stale or of low priority,” the Federal Election Commission said Friday it shut the books on four high-profile campaign finance cases, including one involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and his former political action committee.

The Gingrich case was an expansion of an investigation dealing with allegations that GOPAC, once headed by Gingrich, helped elect federal candidates during the 1990 election and should be forced to make public its donors and spending reports.

The FEC sued GOPAC based on the initial case, and in March a U.S. district court dismissed the suit. The commission told lawyers for GOPAC and Gingrich that it closed the later case, which focused on whether the same violations occurred even earlier than 1990, “in light of the information on the record, the relative significance of the case and the amount of time that has elapsed.”

The FEC also closed an investigation of two Democratic donors who recently pleaded guilty in federal court to laundering $50,000 in illegal campaign contributions in 1994.

Eugene and Nora Lum, operators of an Oklahoma natural-gas pipeline company, received 10 month sentences last month in a criminal case brought by the Justice Department.

Two other shuttered cases had to do with Rep. Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar), who with his wife pleaded guilty in July to federal charges that they accepted more than $230,000 in illegal campaign contributions. Kim, a three-term congressman, is to be sentenced next week.