McClatchy: Heavyweight D.C. law firm represented Hawley for free in 2016
U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley received free representation from one of the most well-connected law firms in Washington, D.C. during his 2016 campaign for attorney general in Missouri.
There is no record of campaign payments to Cooper & Kirk PLLC in Hawley’s state campaign filings from 2016, nor is the firm’s work on Hawley’s behalf recorded as an in-kind donation.
Hawley’s Senate campaign says he didn’t need to disclose Cooper & Kirk’s legal services. The work was related to an open records request by a former state representative who supported Hawley’s primary opponent in the attorney general race.
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It doesn’t help Hawley that he now is paying the same law firm from his Senate campaign funds for work related to open records requests, said Brendan Fischer, federal and FEC reform program director of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C.
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“It is significant that Hawley is using campaign funds to pay his Washington D.C.-based Cooper & Kirk attorneys for his 2018 open records battles, but did not pay those same attorneys with campaign funds when they represented him in his 2016 open records fights,” Fischer said.