Some background:
As much as Team Crist may want to make this election about Rubio’s mismanaged credit cards, the governor’s allies are the ones who may ultimately come under closer legal and ethical examination. Al Hoffman, the former RNC finance chairman, was interviewed by the FBI several weeks ago. “Definitely they asked about the relationship between the Crist campaign and the party, relative to the co-mingling funds,” he told the St. Petersburg Times. “I believe they’re after any federal election law violations, tax avoidance issues, and criminal fraud. . . . They had Jim Greer’s travel expenses and wanted me to react to some of the issues surrounding that debacle. . . . There wasn’t one single question asked about Marco Rubio.”
Greer (the hand-picked chairman whom Crist defended until he resigned) and Johnson spent more than $1 million on RPOF credit charges last year, on flowers, greens fees, meals, and hotels. They also were able to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from the party via a consulting business they set up on the side to manage party donations. When Attorney General Bill McCollum heard about this, he asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct a criminal inquiry. Though Crist has been supportive of investigations of “everyone” who used a party credit card, his close association with Greer, who’s at the center of this storm, is a political liability.
During his back and forth with Rubio over expenses, Crist has always maintained that he was above the fray, since he never used an RPOF credit card. While he may not have used one personally, the plot thickened for the embattled governor on Wednesday when the Orlando Sentinel reported on recently revealed hotel-invoice records. Those records show that Crist, along with future U.S. senator George LeMieux (his former chief of staff), and others stayed at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort in early January 2009 on the RPOF’s dime, for, of all things, Greer’s reelection as RPOF chairman. Greer and Johnson picked up the $26,000 tab for, among other things, Crist’s “presidential suite,” mini-bars, and in-room movies.
Dan has more about the Crist-Greer connection here. Here’s the affidavit.