Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard spent more than $38,660 from his campaign fund on legal fees during 2015.
The Auburn Republican spent far less in 2015 than in 2014, a year during which his campaign sponsored nearly $300,000 of his legal fees.
According to his annual financial disclosure released today, Hubbard's campaign paid $35,000 in legal services to White, Arnold & Dowd, P.C., the law firm of his lead attorney Mark White. White and his firm have been representing Hubbard since late 2013.
Hubbard's campaign paid White's firm $221,475 in 2014, according to monthly campaign reports filed in 2014.
Hubbard owns of the Auburn Network, as well as several other business ventures, and was indicted in October 2014 on 23 counts of felony corruption charges.
Wednesday's financial disclosure follows a motion to leave the case filed by White's team on Dec. 31.
The motion stated that Hubbard was fully aware of and consented to the motion for withdrawal.
White gave no direct reason for requesting leave from the case, but did cite Rule 6.2 of the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct, which defines "good cause" for a lawyer to request dismissal for a case.
According to the rule, an attorney should not be forced to accept an appointment if it would result in an undue "financial burden."
The rule also states that a lawyer may leave a case if the "client or the cause is so repugnant to the lawyer as to be likely to impair the client-lawyer relationship or the lawyer's ability to represent the client."
According to an article on AL.com White wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Jacob Walker requesting the March 28 start date of the trial be delayed until after the week of April 2 so that White could accept an award in Washington, D.C.
White was elected dean of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in March of 2015.
The trial is still set to begin on March 28, and would overlap with the 2016 Alabama House of Representatives legislative session.
According to the 2015 disclosure, Hubbard's campaign also paid $3,660 in legal services to an Opelika-base law firm, Adams, White, Oliver, Short, and Forbus, LLP.
Hubbard's campaign received contributions from 22 political action committees, commonly known as PACs. Contributions to Hubbard's campaign totaled more than $89,000. Hubbard has $19,402.19 remaining in his campaign fund.
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