Documents: PG Sittenfeld to ask U.S. Supreme Court to review his convictions
Attorneys for former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld intend to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his convictions on public corruption charges, saying the case presents legal questions that already divided a lower court "and implicates political conduct that occurs every day in this country."
A divided 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Feb. 11 upheld Sittenfeld's bribery and attempted extortion convictions at the same time as it seemingly paved the way for the Supreme Court to review it.
In the 2-1 decision, all three judges raised doubts about the convictions, with the majority opinion saying previous Supreme Court decisions had made the line between legitimate campaign contributions and illegal bribes "blurrier."
Sittenfeld's attorneys say in a recently filed motion that all three appeals court judges − in separate majority, concurring and dissenting opinions − were "expressly teeing up questions for Supreme Court review."
The existing Supreme Court precedents, according to his attorneys, "makes it difficult to distinguish the facts of this case from scenarios that could not possibly involve criminal activity."
His attorneys have 90 days from Feb. 11 to formally ask the Supreme Court to take the case, according to Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law professor Ken Katkin, who has followed the case closely.
Judge Eric Murphy, in his concurring opinion, said treating campaign contributions as bribes "raise(s) serious concerns under the First Amendment."
The case against Sittenfeld surrounded donations to his political action committee, which he solicited from an informant for the FBI and FBI agents posing as developers. Prosecutors said Sittenfeld's actions went beyond campaign fundraising and crossed the line into bribery. A jury found him guilty in 2022.
Sittenfeld's attorneys said there are doubts about whether "courts should be sending people to prison based on such a tenuous, illusory line."
"Sittenfeld's prosecution provides a template for how an ambitious prosecutor might target a disfavored politician," his attorney's said. "The Supreme Court is likely to be concerned about that potential weaponization of prosecutorial power."
Sittenfeld served about four and a half months of a 16-month sentence before the 6th Circuit released him in May 2024. The court said Wednesday, records show, that he can continue to remain out of prison while his appeal continues.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: PG Sittenfeld to take his case to U.S. Supreme Court
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