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June 11, 2015      4:40 PM

TEC votes to take MQ Sullivan to court in dark money case

In a first of its kind move, the Ethics Commission is initiating a court action in a sworn complaint to enforce subpoenas

In an unprecedented move, the Texas Ethics Commission on Thursday voted to take Tim Dunn spokesman Michael Quinn Sullivan to State District Court in Travis County to try to force the production of documents in the dark money case against Empower Texans. The group is accused of not properly disclosing political expenditures as required by Texas law. The allegations center on whether Empower Texans purposefully hid political expenditures and contributions in the 2012 election cycle.

It is the first time that the commission has ever initiated a court action in connection with a sworn complaint, agency officials said.

The commission will be represented by the Office of the Attorney General, but the timeline for when this might play out in a courtroom was not immediately clear on Thursday afternoon.

This is the second of the complaints against Sullivan and Empower Texans that the commission is dealing with. The first complaint, as Quorum Report readers who have followed this are aware, has to do with whether Sullivan has acted as a lobbyist without registering. The commission found him guilty and that case is now making its way through the appeals process in the courts.

By Scott Braddock