Judge dismisses Troy King’s lawsuit against Steve Marshall

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Troy King_Steve Marshall

Attorney General candidate Troy King’s efforts to stop his opponent Steve Marshall’s ability to spend questionable campaign donations fell apart on Thursday when a Montgomery judge, Circuit Judge James Anderson, dismissed a lawsuit King filed against Marshall.

It all began Monday, when in an eleventh hour effort kit announced a lawsuit he filed against Marshall — just one week before voters hit the polls to cast their ballots in the primary runoff election on July 17.

King alleged that Marshall accepted $700,000 from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) political action committee and that the group uses money from other PAC’s to fund their own PAC; violating Alabama’s PAC to PAC money laws. King then sued Marshall on Wednesday, attempting to deter Marshall from spending the contributions.

“Now, during the 2017 election cycle, according to RAGA’s public filings with the Internal Revenue Service, the RAGA’s PAC has again accepted a number of contributions from other PACs, including, earlier this year, nearly $16,000 from the J.P. Morgan PAC plus another $50,000 in PAC contributions in the last quarter of 2017. RAGA’s PAC has now, during the election cycle, made hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions to Steve Marshall for Alabama, Inc,” said King’s lawsuit, according to WHNT.

But Thursday afternoon a Montgomery judge, Circuit Judge James Anderson, dismissed the lawsuit, and denied King’s request for a restraining order against Marshall.

“Anderson said the Republican PAC is federally regulated and questioned how he and state law would have jurisdiction over transfers that happened in another state,” the Associated Press reported.

After the ruling, Marshall’s campaign released a statement accusing King of abusing the judicial process to stage a political stunt.

“He did so routinely as AG and Republicans fired him in 2010 because of it,” the Montgomery Advertiser reported. “We are glad the court has confirmed this and look forward to getting back to the issues Alabama voters actually care about in the final days of this campaign.”