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Friday, November 20, 2009   59º F

Updated 10/28/2009 09:37 PM

Easley denies knowledge of false invoices in testimony

By: News 14 Carolina Web Staff

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RALEIGH – Former Gov. Mike Easley wrapped up his testimony before the State Board of Elections Wednesday, saying airplane invoices filed by a political ally to his campaign had nothing to do with defraying the cost of repairs on his Raleigh home.

Easley's five-hour testimony Wednesday before the State Board of Elections countered sworn comments ally McQueen Campbell made earlier this week, as the board investigates Easley's campaign finance activities and those of the N.C. Democratic Party.

In the first two days of the hearing, real estate broker McQueen Campbell stated that he provided more than $80,000 of free flights to the former governor over the years. Campbell also said that Easley suggested he get reimbursed for $11,000 in home repairs Campbell paid upfront for the governor by filing aircraft invoices, two of which Campbell said were false.

But Easley adamantly denied asking Campbell to file the invoices.

"I don't know, but I didn't tell him to send them. I didn't indicate to him to send them. I didn't express or imply, or give any indication or suggestion that he should do that or that I would approve it or that I would condone it," Easley said. "It never, ever happened."

The governor testified he told Campbell in 2005 to file an invoice for the campaign to advance him money to pay for expected flights. That kind of pre-billing is apparently lawful.

Many were surprised the former governor's testimony directly contradicted earlier testimony from Campbell, even though both men were under oath. (Watch video)

"It also looks like they've had a falling out," Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of N.C. Policy Watch, said. "You could hear it in Gov. Easley's tone that he's disappointed that that's what McQueen Campbell said. It's diametrically opposed."

Questioning also focused on vehicles purchased during Easley's campaign from a Fayetteville dealership. Easley called it a loose arrangement.

Board members also probed the governor's campaign contributions, trying to figure out who was in charge of reporting and tracking contributions and how the governor had in a hand in the process.

"People in campaigns, Mr. Chairman, use money like monopoly money and they will spend all you got and when I saw some of that going on, knowing what it was like to stand on the hardwood floor for an hour and a half greeting people just to buy one ad on television, I did get a little irritated and I decided we out to cut back what we were going to spend," Easley said.

Easley failed to recall a lot of the details the board addressed in their questioning. But he pointed out that he was serving as governor during the period of time in question and was not as intimately involved in the details of his re-election campaign.

"To my knowledge, I don't think I've seen a campaign report," Easley said. "My main interest was message, what ads were going to say."

Easley is the first governor to be investigated by the board and the first ever called to testify.

There was some speculation that Easley would plead the fifth and not testify before the board. But his attorney says that was not an option the governor would consider.

"He felt like he needed to tell the truth and the truth would not hurt him," attorney Thomas Hicks said. "The final decision about whether an individual testifies who is charged is not with the attorney, it's with the individual who is under scrutiny, and that was his call and he elected to come in and tell the truth."

On Tuesday, many campaign workers who were called to the stand said they couldn’t recall information about campaign fundraising strategies for the Easley campaign, which included the flights Campbell testified about previously.

Joe Sinsheimer, a political watchdog who sat in on the testimony, was skeptical about the amount of facts ‘not remembered’ on Tuesday.

“He must have said I can't remember 100 times,” said Sinsheimer of one person who testified. “These events are not that far in the past, and he should have been more forthcoming.”

For past coverage: Click HERE.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.