A failed Democratic congressional candidate praised by the left as a "progressive voice" in Alabama has been charged with accepting thousands in "prohibited contributions" during her 2010 run.
The FEC charged Shelia Smoot, a union organizer and former Jefferson County Commissioner, with accepting nearly $10,000 in prohibited contributions, as well as misstating her campaign finances.
U.S. Representatives Jim Clyburn (D., S.C.) and Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) endorsed Smoot’s underdog run to become the first black female elected to Congress from Alabama. Shelia lost the primary race to Representative Terri Sewell, another black female, in a run-off.
The FEC charge is not Smoot’s first brush with the law. In December, lawyers representing two bankers and the SEC asked a federal judge to hold her in contempt after she failed to appear in court several times.
A federal judge is being asked to find former Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot in contempt of court after she didn't produce documents or show up—despite a court order to do so—for a deposition in a civil lawsuit the Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing against two bankers who had roles in the county sewer bond deals.
Attorneys for Douglas MacFaddin, one of the two bankers, are asking that U.S. District Court Judge Abdul Kallon find Smoot in contempt of court "for her disregard" of Kallon's order directing Smoot to comply with subpoenas for documents and to appear at a Nov. 21 deposition.
In 2009, Jefferson County issued millions in bonds to pay for a sewer system. The bonds went belly-up leading the county, the largest in Alabama, to declare bankruptcy in 2011. The SEC charged two of the J.P. Morgan bankers involved in the deal with paying $8.2 million to friends of county officials so the bank could secure the issue. Smoot voted for the deal, though she has not yet been implicated in the payoff scheme.