The former Senior Policy Adviser and alleged mistress of former-Gov. Robert Bentley was cleared Thursday by the Alabama Ethics Commission against accusations brought forth by State Auditor Jim Zeigler.
Zeigler had named Mason in a complaint filed March 25, 2016 with the Ethics Commission, which according to Zeigler, launched a year-long investigation that ultimately resulted in finding probable cause Bentley violated state law.
Zeigler reportedly included in his complaint the allegation that Bentley and Mason set up a “dark money” group to receive funds from unknown donors and spend it without accountability. Named among the group’s donors was ACEGOV, the Alabama Council for Excellent Government, a nonprofit founded by Bentley, which partially paid Mason.
On April 5, the Ethics Commission met and held ten hours of hearings on complaints against Bentley and Mason, in which they were unable to prove Mason was guilty of an ethics violation.
The Commission concluded, upon review of the evidence from the investigation, that there was not probable cause to believe that Rebekah Caldwell Mason committed a violation of the Alabama Ethics Act. Accordingly, your complaint has been dismissed. Should you provide any additional information that would warrant a reopening of this case, a new investigation would be conducted.
Zeigler says he now looking to see if other options are available to continue to the investigation.
Read the full letter from the Ethics Commission below:
