Schaffer Denies Securing Earmark That Led To Fraud

It took him a few weeks, but Colorado Republican and Senate candidate Bob Schaffer finally spoke publicly about the recent conviction of a former business associate for defrauding the EPA.

Specifically, Schaffer said he had no involvement in securing the $3.6 million earmark that led to the fraud conviction of Colorado businessman Bill Orr.

He spoke to a reporter from the Rocky Mountain News:

“I did not advocate his earmark. In fact, I was unaware of his earmark,” Schaffer said, adding he voted against the bill that contained the earmark.

We’d been trying to get Schaffer to talk about that 2000 earmark for weeks. After a federal jury in May concluded that the National Alternative Fuels Foundation was a scam that was bilking taxpayer dollars with junk science, we called every lawmaker from the Colorado delegation at that time. Schaffer, who served on the group’s board of directors after leaving the House, was the only one who wouldn’t return our calls.

One of Schaffer’s political friends, Scott Shires, told the Rocky Mountain News that Orr got the federal money with help from an out-of-state lawmaker.

Shires said Orr told him the earmark was inserted into the bill by a key House committee staffer at the direction of a non-Colorado congressman, and that a “very expensive bottle of whiskey” changed hands.

A new twist in his story is that Schaffer now says he was a paid board member. Previously, his campaign had denied he received any money in that role. Schaffer said he was paid about $1,500 for the several months he spent serving on the board of directors from about December 2004 to March 2005.

The EPA froze the NAFF grant in January 2005, after paying out about $2 million to the group. Schaffer said Department of Justice investigators interviewed him about the NAFF in February 2005, just before he resigned his position on the board in March.

Schaffer’s says he signed on with the NAFF at the suggestion of his pal Shires, a longtime GOP operative in Colorado who was serving as NAFF’s salaried treasurer. Shires and Schaffer have known each other for years and Shires has served as the registered agent for one of Schaffer’s campaigns.

Shires was in federal court today getting sentenced for a misdemeanor charge connected with the NAFF investigation. A judge gave him a year’s probation and a $3,450 fine for failure to file a tax report. He’d pleaded guilty in 2006 and agreed to testify against Orr.