Alison Lundergan Grimes’ father indicted for illegal contributions to her Senate bid

The father of Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes was indicted Friday on charges that he illegally funneled money from his company to her failed 2014 U.S. Senate campaign and then lied about it, the Justice Department announced.

Jerry Lundergan, 71, a former Democratic state lawmaker and chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, faces 10 counts of unlawful campaign contributions, false statements and falsifying records.

A federal grand jury in Lexington, Kentucky, also indicted Dale Emmons on six similar counts. Mr. Emmons is an employee of Mr. Lundergan’s company and is accused of billing his boss instead of the campaign for his political consulting.

The indictment alleges the pair instructed campaign consultants and vendors to bill their company, S.R. Holding Co. for work they did on Ms. Grimes campaign. The company paid those bills without seeking reimbursement from the Grimes campaign.

All told, vendors billed S.R. Holdings over $194,000 for audio-video production, lighting and campaign consulting between July 2013 and December 2015, according to the indictment.

Mr. Emmons is also accused of paying nearly $39,000 from his corporation to pay vendors and a campaign worker for recorded telephone calls, technological support and other expenses, the indictment said.

After a grand jury subpoenaed records about from Mr. Lundergan in 2016, he only sought partial reimbursement from the campaign, according to the indictment.

Ms. Grimes, whose 2014 Senate bid sought to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said she’s confident her father will be vindicated.

“These allegations started as a result of a politically motivated complaint filed against my campaign nearly five years ago,” the statement said. “That complaint was already investigated and completely dismissed by the bipartisan Federal Election Committee.”

Mr. Lundergan has been a longtime staple in Kentucky Democratic politics, twice serving as chairman and the state’s Democrat Party and helping engineer his daughter’s campaign for senate and secretary of state.