A three-year ethics commission investigation of Republican Party leaders and political operatives appears to be near or at an end after the agency dropped efforts to enforce subpoenas issued in the case.
The ethics commission notified judges Thursday that it would no longer seek to enforce subpoenas issued to the treasurer of a Republican-leaning political action committee as well as the chief of staff of the former House speaker and a former local Republican official.
A lower-court had previously thrown out the subpoenas issued to Matt Billingsley, chair and treasurer of the Lift Up Kansas Political Action Committee as well as Paje Resner, chief of staff to former House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr.
The ethics commission had initially sought to appeal those rulings but on Thursday notified the Supreme Court it was dropping the cases against Resner and Billingsley.
No explanation was provided other than to say the dismissal was voluntary and with prejudice, meaning the case is over.
In both cases, Shawnee County District Judge Teresa Watson found that the state law used as the basis for enforcing the subpoena was unconstitutionally vague, leading the Legislature to rewrite the statute this year.
Ryan Kriegshauser, one of the lawyers representing Billingsley, said the notices ended a “misguided” chapter for the ethics commission.
In the future, Kriegshauser said he hoped the agency “will take a more educational and cooperative approach as we all move forward with clearer laws now on the books given the legislature’s actions this last session.”
Resner expressed relief after the ethics commission made its court filings.
“It is finally over,” Resner said.
“The ethics commission’s former executive director unfairly targeted Republicans in a wide ranging investigation that spanned over four years, in an attempt to change the enforcement of the law without notice,” Resner said in an email.
“The judicial process correctly deemed these actions unconstitutional, and I’m thankful to the commissioners for putting an end to this matter,” she said.
“We’re hopeful that this outcome sends a clear message: enforcement must be fair, consistent, and grounded in the constitution”
The commission, meanwhile, dropped ongoing efforts to enforce a subpoena issued to Fabian Shepard, former chair of the Johnson County Republican Party.
A lawyer for the ethics commission also filed a short notice in Shawnee County District Court saying the agency was permanently dismissing the case against Shepard.
Shepard has been seeking to dismiss the subpoenas on the same grounds that Watson had thrown out the cases against Resner and Billingsley.
The commission’s decision to drop the appeals seems to signal the closure of a roughly 3-year-old investigation that exploded publicly during the 2022 legislative session after numerous lawmakers reported getting ethics subpoenas.
Many subpoenas – believed to be “dozens” – were served on state officials in early 2022, exposing an investigation that captured the attention of political observers across the state and led to legislation reworking the state’s ethics and campaign finance laws.
Court records indicate subpoenas were served on interns, political consultants, party officials, nonprofit organizations and elected officials, as well as unsuccessful candidates.
It is impossible to know for sure how many subpoenas were served because state ethics officials are not allowed by law to discuss ongoing ethics investigations publicly.
The ethics commission had been looking into whether political action committees allegedly gave money to county Republican parties that was in turn relayed to the state Republican Party to skirt campaign finance limits.
The investigation focused on whether there was a violation of a state law barring someone from making a campaign contribution in the name of another. The law also prohibits someone from knowingly taking a contribution made in the name of another.
Ethics officials said in court documents that campaign contributions could be traced from the Republican State Leadership Committee in Washington, D.C., to the Kansas Republican Party via the LIFT Up Kansas PAC and The Right Way PAC for Economic Growth.
They alleged in those documents that about $54,000 funds were donated directly as well as passed through the LIFT Up Kansas PAC, The Right Way PAC for Economic Growth PAC and the Republican parties in Johnson, Shawnee and Sedgwick counties.
But in recent months, the commission had not only suffered setbacks in court trying to enforce subpoenas issued in the case, but it had already started releasing others from the subpoenas that were issued as part of the investigation.
In February, the state ethics commission released GOP political consultant Jared Suhn from a subpoena issued three years ago, saying he was no longer part of a wide-ranging investigation focused on the Republican Party apparatus in Kansas.
Suhn’s name surfaced publicly in court proceedings stemming from the investigation and at one point, court documents indicated that the ethics commission had labeled a communication from Suhn to a county party official as “smoking gun” in the case.
However, the ethics commission said flatly that Suhn was not part of the investigation.
A similar letter was sent to Mike Pirner, spokesperson for the Senate president, although it is believed that others got similar letters releasing them from their subpoenas as well.
Meanwhile, a district judge has awarded Billingsley about $86,000 in legal fees after he successfully fought the subpoena, and the other parties in the case are seeking legal fees from the agency as well.
The ethics commission seemed to be backing off the investigation after Mark Skoglund resigned as executive director to take another position in state government in January.
The composition of the ethics commission is significantly different from three years ago when the subpoenas were issued.
Six of the nine members of the ethics commission have been on the panel since 2023, after the investigation first came to public light. A seventh member who is no longer on the commission was not on the panel when the investigation started.
At one point, lawyers for Billingsley accused the ethics commission under Skoglund’s direction of carrying out a broad investigation of campaign finance in public view, playing favorites with Democrats and issuing subpoenas that were “staggeringly broad.”
They accused Skoglund and ethics staff in court documents of “personally marching through the Capitol serving subpoenas during the Kansas legislative session,” killing any possibility of a confidential investigation from the start.
Lawyers for Shepard accused the commission of “bungled attempts” to keep the investigation confidential and said the agency’s subpoena enforcement efforts unwittingly disclosed a “supposed target” of the investigation.
In a departing statement, Skoglund stood behind the litigation.
“Much has been written about ongoing litigation in Kansas state court,” he said when he left the commission earlier this year.
“I do not typically comment out of professional decorum regardless of what other attorneys do, but will offer this one note: the commission will unquestionably prevail on appeal.
“Of this, there is no doubt.”
