ELECTIONS PANEL HEARS CONGRESSWOMAN SCHMIDT’S COMPLAINT

kypost.com
Sept 3 2009

The Ohio Elections Commission has postponed until October a hearing
about an congresswoman’s complaint over comments made during the
2008 campaign.

The commission ran out of time after seven hours of testimony Thursday
over whether Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s challenger violated election
law when he claimed that Schmidt took "blood money" from Turkish
political interests.

Richard Krikorian said Schmidt accepted money from the Turkish
government, or from "Turkish-government sponsored political action
committees," in return for denying that the mass killings of Armenians
during World War I constituted genocide.

Krikorian has argued that his comments are protected political speech.

His attorneys tried to establish Thursday that the Turkish government
is funneling money to Schmidt through back channels.

Krikorian is seeking a rematch with the Republican Second District
Representative in the 2010 election.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress