Lawyers offer jurors differing views on O’Donnell’s reason for writing checks to friends
Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell gifted donations meant to fund two of his bids for public office to a handful of friends when they did little to no work on his campaigns, including paying $2,000 toward an Aspen ski trip with buddies that he later pocketed, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday during opening statements.
But an attorney for O’Donnell told jurors there was nothing illegal going on — that all of the $10,500 prosecutors say he misspent in 2015 and 2016 paid staffers who either worked legitimately or made themselves available to work on his “Michael for Kansas” or “Michael for Sedgwick County” campaigns. Nothing in campaign finance law, Mark Schoenhofer pointed out, tells candidates when or how much to pay campaign staffers and volunteers, making the amount each got up to O’Donnell’s discretion.
“Michael O’Donnell never intended to defraud of cheat” anyone, Schoenhofer said. “It’s not in his nature.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith disagreed, telling jurors O’Donnell “took the privilege of elected office and ultimately used it for his benefit.”
The attorney’s comments kicked off what’s expected to be at least a weeklong criminal trial for the Republican politician. O’Donnell, 34, is facing 23 counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering, all felonies that carry the potential of prison time. A former Wichita city councilman and state senator, O’Donnell has continued to serve on the Sedgwick County Commission representing parts of southwest Wichita, Haysville and Clearwater even after a federal grand jury handed down his indictment last May. He’s accused of writing 23 questionable checks in a scheme to defraud members of the public who expected their donations to help him win office.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith told jurors Monday that O’Donnell had “extraordinary access” to resources like his campaign bank accounts which he used to show his friends a good time, including paying their way at sports events, concerts and other events when there wasn’t any campaign work going on.
One friend who “did not work a single time” for the campaigns received a series of six checks after his father died. He used that money to help pay his car insurance, Smith said. The rest was spending money that went into that friend’s pocket.
Smith also said that a pair of $1,000 checks O’Donnell wrote to two other friends went to pay for ski trip expenses O’Donnell charged on his personal credit card.
One of those friends cashed and returned the money to O’Donnell when O’Donnell asked; the other wrote O’Donnell a personal check back in the same amount when O’Donnell asked for it, Smith said.
When interviewed by authorities, both told investigators they didn’t do anything to earn the money. Retired FBI special agent Charles Pritchett testified Monday that he started digging into O’Donnell’s campaign spending after some bank transactions raised “red flags.”
“This access to the campaign funds and wanting to entertain and spend time with his friends made it just too easy and convenient to pay for their entertainment or to provide cash to them,” Smith told jurors, adding that O’Donnell “was considered generous by all of his friends.”
O’Donnell’s attorney, meanwhile, cautioned jurors to be skeptical of the prosecution’s case, saying investigators had overlooked key evidence. The fraud FBI agents perceived in the bank transactions doesn’t exist, he contended. The checks O’Donnell wrote to friends went solely to compensate them for their work in an amount O’Donnell thought was fair in the absence of any payment guidelines under campaign finance law.
In total, O’Donnell raised around $527,000 across the two campaigns — only a fraction of which is targeted in the prosecution’s case, he said.
He explained to jurors that the friends who told investigators they hadn’t earned their pay had simply forgotten their roles in the campaign because they’d been interviewed years after the transactions took place. Evidence the defense plans to present will prove it, he said.
He went on to describe the two $1,000 checks that are the subject of the money laundering charges as bonuses to two friends who weren’t paid for all of their campaign work throughout the years, a customary reward for a job well done. Those two friends and their girlfriends went on the Aspen ski trip — most expenses for which O’Donnell paid upfront — and wanted to pay back their share.
“Michael O’Donnell recruited people he knew were hardworking, trustworthy and reliable … and they were willing and available to help,” Schoenhofer said.
At some point during the trial, O’Donnell will take the witness stand to help explain the transactions and his thinking, Schoenhofer said. Court resumes at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
This story was originally published February 25, 2019 at 7:19 PM.
