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Feingold Returns Donations From Boston Lawyers

Reporting Shows Firm Reimbursed Employees Following Donations To Democrats

By
Chuck Quirmbach/WPR

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingold says his campaign has returned donations made by a Boston law firm accused of paying bonuses to partners who donated money to politicians.

The Center for Responsive Politics claims Feingold received $45,000 from employees at the Thornton Law Firm. But Feingold told reporters Sunday in Milwaukee that the money has been given back.

“There’s no tolerance from me, or from my campaign for anything that even skirts on the possibility of being inappropriate,” Feingold said. “So, the only thing to do is to take the action we took, because we won’t tolerate anything of that kind.”

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The Boston Globe reported Saturday that in several cases, the firm gave bonuses to employees equal to amounts they gave to politicians.

According to the Globe, the firm’s founding partner, Michael Thornton, his wife and two top lawyers gave almost $1.6 million to Democratic candidates and groups from 2010-2014. Over that period, they received $1.4 million in bonuses, many of which matched the donations.

The newspaper reported donors being compensated for political contributions is often illegal, because it could lead to violations of contribution limits. But Thornton told the Globe the donations complied with the law.

Feingold said he met Thornton at a lunch at the law firm last year. A spokesperson for Feingold’s opponent, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told a Milwaukee newspaper the Globe story, “is more evidence that Feingold’s in it for himself.”

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