Governor defends trips

Hickenlooper is adamant that his travel has never been in violation of the state’s Amendment 41.

Gov. John Hickenlooper personally paid for much of the travel a former state lawmaker has accused him of accepting in violation of state law, and other trips were within the ethics guidelines, Hickenlooper’s attorney said Wednesday in a written response to a complaint before the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission.

The complaint, filed by former House Speaker Frank McNulty in mid-October via a new nonprofit, the Public Trust Institute, is merely an attempt to damage the governor’s reputation, Hickenlooper’s attorneys say.

According to a 15-page response, trips the governor took, such as one paid by Larry Mizel to attend the dedication of the USS Colorado submarine in Connecticut, were a personal gift from a close friend that did not require public disclosure under state law. At other times, Hickenlooper paid for his personal travel from his own pocket, which similarly did not require disclosure.

A copy of the response obtained

by The Denver Post did not include receipts of Hickenlooper’s payments, but it indicates the IEC filing had them attached.

The governor also issued a statement Wednesday afternoon: “At no time have my actions violated the letter or spirit of Amendment 41. The response underscores the frivolous nature of the allegations. We anticipate the matter will be resolved quickly and in our favor.”

The state’s Amendment 41 requires all elected officials to disclose any benefit or gift they receive valued at more than $59 unless it falls under a number of exemptions delineated in the law or in IEC opinions.

The Denver Post previously reported that any gifts accepted must be reported, even if they are allowed under Amendment 41, but the law was changed in 2012 to allow some exemptions from disclosure, such as gifts from a personal friend for a special occasion.

In the response, Hickenlooper’s attorney, Mark Grueskin of Recht Kornfeld in Denver, swiped away assertions that the governor quietly accepted free jet travel, stayed at expensive resorts and never bothered to report them, and called for the complaint’s dismiss- al, saying “errant allegations (could) affect a public officer’s credibility and reputation.”

“McNulty bases his complaint largely on what unknown parties have indirectly related publicly in some fashion … as well as redacted public documents from Hickenlooper,” Grueskin wrote. “The complaint is founded on a lack of personal knowledge and is, in large part, factually or legally incorrect, or both.”

In an interview with The Denver Post, McNulty on Wednesday called the explanations “convenient” and little more than “a way to make our ethics law essentially meaningless.”

McNulty’s complaint focuses on one key trip that occurred in June, when Hickenlooper attended the Bilderberg Meetings in Turin, Italy. It’s a gathering of high-powered corporate executives and political leaders from around the world that is often seen as a primer for anyone seeking higher office.

Hickenlooper has been touted as a potential candidate for the White House, something he has said he would not decide until his term as governor ends in January.

Though McNulty said much of the Turin event was paid for by its sponsors, Hickenlooper said he actually forked out more than $6,700 from his own pocket. The total included his hotel room and meals, and any car service he used — he was caught on camera using a chauffeured Maserati limousine at the airport — was part of the hotel package he paid, according to the reply.

“There was no gift made by any third party,” Grueskin wrote. “McNulty uses hearsay upon hearsay upon hearsay.”

The complaint laid out nearly 100 questionable flights Hickenlooper has taken since September 2011, when he first took office, though it primarily focused on those from the past year, which the IEC is able to investigate.

“In part, the complainant ruminates about events and circumstances said to have occurred in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and January 2017,” Grueskin wrote, noting the IEC cannot consider anything from more than a year ago. “The fact that (McNulty) raises them here underscores that ethics-related allegations, as the IEC has observed, are sometimes filed to ‘impact reputations.’ ”

Hickenlooper did admit to accepting free jet travel four times in 2018, but explained each as a personal friend’s gesture on a special occasion, which the IEC allows:

• In January he traveled from New Jersey to Colorado on a jet owned by close friend Kenneth Tuchman, founder of TeleTech. Hickenlooper was in New York City attending to his wife, Robin, while she recovered from an undisclosed medical procedure. The flight was to get the governor back to Colorado in time to deliver the State of the State address to the legislature.

• In March he attended the dedication of the attack submarine USS Colorado in Connecticut. The cost of the air travel was paid by Larry Mizel, CEO of MDC Holdings, “a personal friend of (Hickenlooper) on a special occasion. … Mizel has a deep interest in matters pertaining to our national security and defense.”

• Sometime in 2018 he returned from officiating the Dallas wedding of Kimbal Musk, brother to Tesla cofounder Elon Musk, on a plane owned by the groom, whom Hickenlooper’s attorney characterized as a close friend.

• In August he went to the American Enterprise Institute’s Jackson Hole Symposium on a plane leased and flown by Patrick Meyers, the governor’s chief of staff and personal friend, who was already heading to the conference and had space on the plane.

Two other trips cited in the complaint — one to Aspen in August and one to Canada a month later — each came out of the governor’s pocket, according to the reply. Both trips were redacted from the travel records McNulty received in response to an open records request and relied on in filing the ethics complaint.

“McNulty states that redacted details translate to the use of a private aircraft,” the response says. “This is yet another instance of an allegation of an ethical violation that is based on personal speculation.”

McNulty said he will challenge Hickenlooper’s explanations to the IEC.

“It’s not as if Hickenlooper is taking a trip to Maui on a family vacation,” McNulty said Wednesday.

Hickenlooper is unusual among the state’s highranking politicians in filing just one gift-disclosure report — in 2017 for a $500 painting given by the first lady of Zambia — since 2013.

He has said he filed reports when they were required.