WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The results of an investigation into a Republican lawmaker has been referred by the local district attorney to to the Kansas attorney general’s office to assess whether to take any further action over a plot to cover up their role in a false ad against a mayoral candidate in the state’s largest city.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said in a news release Friday that he has been in consultation with the attorney general’s office concerning state Rep Michael Capps.
Wichita City Council member James Clendenin was interviewed again and the district attorney’s office plans to release information on him next week, Bennett said.
Michael O’Donnell resigned last week from the Sedgwick County Commission after Bennett concluded there was sufficient evidence to begin ouster proceedings.
The three GOP officials had faced calls to resign following the release of a recording made in November 2019, just two days before then-Democratic state Rep. Brandon Whipple won the Wichita mayor’s race.
On the recording, the three men could be heard plotting to frame Sedgwick County’s GOP chairman for a YouTube ad that falsely suggested that Whipple was accused of sexual harassment while serving in the Legislature.