Hatch donates to Doolittle’s defense

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, donated $10,000 to embattled Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-Calif.) legal defense fund.

{mosads}Hatch, a fellow Mormon, donated $5,000 from his personal campaign committee and $5,000 from his leadership political action committee, according to the first report of contributions Doolittle filed to the ethics committee. Doolittle created the legal fund in late June just three days before the end of the second quarter’s reporting period so it had not collected any cash by the previous deadline.

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) as well as Reps. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) and Wally Herger (R-Calif.) also made donations to the defense fund of $1,000, $1,500 and $5,000, respectively. The fund collected a total of $31,750 from 25 donors. It spent $28,228 on legal fees to two McLean, Va.-based firms, Williams Mullen and Miles & Stockbridge.

The FBI is probing Doolittle and his wife’s ties to imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Doolittles’ Virginia home was raided in mid-April. Doolittle has denied any wrongdoing.

The donations from four members of Congress show at least some support from his colleagues after recent reports that House GOP leaders are trying to convince him to retire at the end of the term. Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) is the first member to go on the record calling on Doolittle to step aside for the good of the party, although another Republican, GOP Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.) told The Hill that that he should resign if indicted.

Doolittle represents a GOP stronghold in Northern California. But he won the last election by only three percentage points after a bruising contest against Charlie Brown, a veteran who is running again this cycle.

Brown has out-fundraised Doolittle this cycle. Doolittle also faces challenges in the GOP primary.