Kobach pays $1,000 fine, but wins ruling on voter info request

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has paid a $1,000 fine for misleading a federal court.

Kobach paid the fine late last week, according to court records posted Monday.

Separately, a federal judge ruled Monday that Kobach’s nationwide request for voter information can move forward. The order constituted a setback for a privacy group that had sued to block his request, which seeks names, dates of birth, felony convictions and other information.

The two events continued a near-daily stream of legal developments for Kobach, who is involved in multiple lawsuits challenging both Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship voter registration law and President Trump’s Election Integrity Commission, which he co-chairs.

Kobach, who is running for governor, was fined $1,000 in June by U.S. Magistrate Judge James O’Hara over misleading the court about the contents of materials he was photographed taking into a November meeting with then President-elect Trump.

“The Court urges defense counsel to garner good reputations for themselves by taking care in the future to act honestly and graciously towards the court and opposing counsel,” O’Hara wrote at the time.

Court records show Kobach paid the fine on Friday – the deadline set by O’Hara.

The Kansas Office of the Disciplinary Administrator disclosed last week it will investigate Kobach, in part because he misled the court. The state agency is charged with investigating attorney misconduct.

But Kobach scored a victory on Monday when U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the information request that Kobach sent on behalf of the Election Integrity Commission move forward. More than a dozen states have said they will not comply and others plan to provide only partial information.

“This ruling is a major victory for government accountability, transparency and the public’s right to know about the integrity of our elections processes,” Kobach said in a statement.

He emphasized that the commission is seeking publicly-available data.

The lawsuit challenging the collection was brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

“EPIC will push forward. The Commission cannot evade privacy obligations by playing a shell game with the nation’s voting records,” EPIC President Marc Rotenberg said in a statement.

Contributing: Associated Press