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Ehrlich Campaign Cash Paid For Schurick's Defense

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. used $168,000 in leftover campaign funds to pay for defense attorneys in his aide Paul Schurick's election fraud trial.

The Baltimore Sun reports the payments were outlined in a campaign finance report filed last week by the Bob Ehrlich for Maryland Committee.

A Baltimore jury last month convicted Schurick on charges that he authorized a 2010 Election Day automated-call campaign to suppress the African-American vote by falsely suggesting that Gov. Martin O'Malley had already won and voters could stay home.

Ehrlich, a Republican, stood behind Schurick and was called as a character witness at the trial.

Schurick is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 16.

The use of the money to pay an aide's legal defense is not clearly addressed in Maryland law.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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