(USA TODAY) -- Hats off to our friends at Roll Call for this gem:
A federal judge in Washington D.C., has ordered former Idaho senator Larry Craig to repay the Treasury nearly $200,000 that he spent from his campaign account to cover legal fees resulting from his 2007 arrest in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. The Federal Election Commission argued it was an improper use of campaign funds for personal purposes.
This was the arrest in which an undercover officer investigating sexual encounters in the airport bathroom said Craig tapped his feet and signaled under a stall divider that he wanted sex. The police report famously reported that Craig said it was a misunderstanding because he has a "wide stance" when he uses the bathroom.
Lawmakers routinely tap their campaign accounts to pay for legal bills in matter related to their official duties; Craig had argued that the bathroom arrest was tied to his official duties because he was traveling between Idaho and the nation's capital for work.
But according to Roll Call: U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Craig must repay $197,533 in campaign funds from the Craig Committee, which functioned as "little more than an alter-ego for Senator Craig himself," plus a $45,000 fine.
Craig announced his resignation shortly after the story broke but served until his term ended at the end of 2008.
