Moreland Commission Responds to Motion to Quash ‘Dark Money’ Subpoena

City & State NY reports that Moreland Commission on Public Corruption lawyers have filed papers opposing the motion to quash a subpoena of Daniel Odescalchi.  Odescalchi is the principal of Strategic Advantage International, the public relations firm that handled the website of Common Sense Principles.

Common Sense Principles made independent expenditures in New York’s 2012 state legislative races, typically in the form of ads attacking Democratic State Senate candidates, but avoided identifying any of its contributors. (Read my earlier post about the group here.)

The state says that it is appropriately investigating the use of ‘dark money’ – campaign-related expenditures that have not been properly disclosed to the State Board of Elections or the Federal Elections Commission.

Commission lawyers wrote:

In an effort to keep [their election-related activity in New York] secret, petitioners have moved to quash the Commission’s subpoenas. Each of the arguments advanced in support of petitioners’ motion, however, is without merit. The nature of CSP’s involvement in funding election-related activities falls squarely within the Commission’s authority to investigate weaknesses in New York’s existing campaign-finance and lobbying laws. Petitioners’ procedural and overbreadth objections are plainly belied by the Commission’s enabling order and the Commission’s willingness to narrow the subpoenas’ scope to address any legitimate burden concerns. And petitioners’ assertions of harms to their First Amendment interests are squarely foreclosed by recent precedents, including from the U.S. Supreme Court, holding that disclosures about the sources of election-related spending serve compelling state interests. Petitioners’ motion should be denied, and the subpoenas enforced.

The company argues that the subpoena is unduly burdensome and violates its First Amendment rights.

All of the papers and exhibits that have been filed in this case can be found here.