Jackley Received $20k from Law Firm He Was Tasked to Fight in Court

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Friends of Marty Jackley PAC reported just one in-state PAC contribution in it’s 2016 Year-End report, a $20,000 contribution from the Woods Fuller Law Firm’s Second Century PAC. The money was given sometime between the November 2016 general election and the end of the 2016 calendar year, the very same time frame Republican lawmakers hired Woods Fuller to challenge and eventually defeat Marty Jackley’s office in the legal battle against the voter-approved Initiated Measure 22, the anti-corruption measure.

As the state’s Attorney General, Jackley was tasked with defending IM22 in court. Ultimately, Jackley’s office lost the case to the law firm that contributed to support Jackley’s campaign. After Jackley’s loss, legislators repealed the voter-approved Anti-Corruption Act during the 92nd Legislative Session.

Second Century, the political arm of Woods and Fuller, contributed another $15,000 in 2017, but this time to Marty Jackley directly. The specific date of that donation is not reported. Jackley is the only candidate Second Century gave to in 2016 and 2017, and the timing of the first $20,000 raises serious questions about the potential impropriety of that sizeable gift from the law firm Jackley was supposed to be opposing in court.

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