Complaint Against AG Lynch Dismissed By Ethics Commission

(Providence, RI) -- A complaint filed against Attorney General Patrick Lynch by the state Republican Party was dismissed yesterday by the state Ethics Commission. The complaint was based on Lynch accepting a plane ticket from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association to travel to a conference in New Orleans last year. The complaint alleged the acceptance of the tickets violated the ethics law that caps gifts to public officials at 75-dollars from an "interested party" doing business in the state that involves that public official. Lynch can intervene on matters involving the cable industry. But, "The Providence Journal" reported that an Ethics Commission prosecutor found that, in this case, the telecommunications association was not an interested party under the definition of the law. Lynch called the complaint, "frivolous."