WASHINGTON --Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis, under investigation for his ties to a lobbyist, spent $200,000 on his legal team last month.
Lewis, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, reported spending the sum as a retainer to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP on June 7, several weeks after the federal investigation of his connections to lobbyist Bill Lowery became public. The payment was contained in Federal Election Commission reports filed Saturday.
Lewis' legal team at the firm includes former Solicitor General Ted Olson; Robert Bonner, who once led the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles and was once head of Customs and Border Protection; Mel Levine, a former Democratic congressman from California; and Joseph Warin, a former federal prosecutor.
Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles are investigating the close and mutually beneficial relationship between Lewis and Lowery, focusing on Lowery clients who have gotten tens of millions of dollars for projects in the annual spending bills Lewis' committee approves. Lowery and his associates have been top donors to Lewis' campaigns.
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