Indicted state Rep. Smith failed to disclose campaign cash used to pay defense lawyers

According to newly filed state campaign records, indicted state Rep. Derrick Smith (D) used his campaign fund to pay at least $37,500 to the criminal defense lawyers representing him in his federal bribery case.

Smith made the expenditure to the Henderson Adam law firm on March 29, 2012, just days after being arrested for allegedly accepting a $7,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI informant. But he didn’t actually make it public to the State Board of Elections until Jan. 21, nearly 10 months after the fact, records show.

In that same late-January amendment to the disclosure report covering activity for the first three months of 2012, Smith also divulged spending $1,500 on an unamed law firm in the 6800 block of Touhy Avenue in Niles. ...More HERE