January 31, 2013 10:23 AM UTC

Gessler Reaches New Heights of Absurdity

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Statement from Colorado Ethics Watch on Secretary of State Scott Gessler's lawsuit:

Yesterday, the team of lawyers who have been representing Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler at the public’s expense filed suit in Denver District Court, seeking a temporary restraining order that would prevent the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) from finishing its ethics investigation of Gessler.  Ethics Watch filed a complaint in October 2012, and the IEC began investigating Gessler’s use of public funds to travel to Florida for the Republican National Convention and a gathering of Republican lawyers as well as a 2012 fiscal year-end “reimbursement” to Gessler of all remaining funds in the Department of State discretionary account.  Gessler is also under criminal investigation by the Denver District Attorney.

“Secretary Gessler is obviously desperate to prevent the release on Monday of an investigative report that would likely confirm not only the truth of Ethics Watch’s allegations, but that his conduct violated standards of conduct that prohibit the use of public funds for personal or political purposes,” said Ethics Watch Director Luis Toro. “We hope the Ethics Commission will not be intimidated by Secretary Gessler’s continued bullying tactics.”

As reported last night by Tim Hoover at the Denver Post, Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler is suing Colorado's Independent Ethics Commission over their investigation into misuse of state funds by Gessler himself. Gessler, you'll recall, is also under investigation by the Denver District Attorney's office for allegedly using state money to reimburse himself for political expenses.

Attorneys for Gessler charge that the Independent Ethics Commission's investigation is "injuring his reputation," which is as silly as it sounds. Nobody has done more to hurt Scott Gessler's reputation than, well Scott Gessler.