A spokesman for U.S. Representative Henry “Hank” Johnson, D-GA, responded to a Majority Accountability Project (majorityap.com) report that the freshman Democrat pays the highest campaign rent of any member of Georgia’s Congressional delegation by telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Johnson’s law firm paid for the space when the campaign couldn’t afford to, a likely violation of federal campaign laws, research by majorityap.com has found. A search of Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records found that Johnson first began paying his law firm, Johnson and Johnson Law Group LLC, $1500 a month in rent for a campaign headquarters on April 3, 2006.  To date, Johnson’s campaign committee paid the firm in which he was a profit-sharing partner a total of $22,500. But according to Johnson, his law firm wasn’t the campaign’s landlord. “Johnson and Johnson Law Group leased space from the property owner and subleased temporary space to the campaign,” his spokeswoman, Deb McGhee Speights, told the Journal Constitution yesterday. That fact would indicate Johnson and Johnson Law Group was paying expenses owed by the campaign, and places Johnson, a former Judge in the Magistrate Court of DeKalb County, in possible violation of Federal Elections Commission (FEC) regulations. Until it dissolved on October 17, 2007, Johnson and Johnson Law Group was a registered Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the state of Georgia.  Depending on its tax status, an LLC may provide certain financial assistance to federal candidates, but faces strict contribution limits. The FEC defines a contribution as “anything of value given, loaned or advanced to influence a federal election,” and cites “facilities,” such as campaign offices.  Among the contributions defined for LLC’s are in-kind contributions, such as “payments by a third party for goods and services rendered to a candidate or political committee.” Johnson and Johnson Law Group LLC could not have leased space on behalf of the campaign – as his office has maintained – without violating federal contributions limits. As reported yesterday by majorityap.com, Johnson pays more in rent for his campaign office than any other member of Georgia’s Congressional delegation, including the Peach state’s two U.S. Senators. While Johnson defended the $1500 a month in rent he was paying his law firm for the campaign headquarters, his office offered no explanation on why the freshmen Democrat also leases an office from Jubilee Holdings in Lithonia, GA. Jubilee Holdings is owned by Robert Burroughs, and its address is the law firm where Johnson’s wife, Mereda Davis Johnson is now a partner.  The firm, Burroughs Johnson Hopewell LLC, was formed July 1, 2007, after Mrs. Johnson ended her practice with her husband, citing his election to Congress.

TRY AGAIN? - U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson's defense of why he pays more in campaign headquarter's rent than any other member of Georgia's Congressional delegation may land him in hot water with the FEC.